


Immigrant Song

by eshcaine



Series: The God Hunters [1]
Category: Supernatural, The God Hunters
Genre: Cross Over, Destiel - Freeform, Gen, History, Hunting, Long Beach CA, Los Angeles, Mash-up, Orignal Mythos, Sibylline, Trolls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-03
Updated: 2013-02-04
Packaged: 2017-11-28 03:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/669800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eshcaine/pseuds/eshcaine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam & Dean Winchester go to Los Angeles to help a friend of Bobby’s hunt down something big and nasty. But Dean meets someone unexpected; someone who knows everything about him, even about his time in Hell. Someone who also understand what's happening between he and Castiel even if Dean doesn't get it yet himself.. (Story falls somewhere during Season 5 between 5.5 Fallen Idols and 5.6 I Believe The Children Are Our Future)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

They had just rolled out of the parking lot of a diner in Reno Nevada when Sam Winchester’s cell phone rang. Sam fumbled it out of his jeans pocket, tapped it on and cupped it against his ear, “Hullo?” Outside his window, the morning sun was already hazy and dry. Dust flew past the Impala in dull swirling clouds.

“It’s Bobby….”the familiar gruff voice said.

“Hey Bobby” Sam shot Dean a glance but all Dean did in acknowledgment was burp. Loudly.

“Look Sam, I got a friend near L.A. named Grace. She’s been working with a group of hunters down there. She called me and said they have something big and they need some extra hands.”

“Big? Like, what kind of big?” Sam eyed Dean a second time. Dean lifted one brow and shifted his grip on the steering wheel pretending to focus only on the road.

“Something has been eating people and animals. She said it’s leaving chewed up bits of bodies all along the L.A. River. Look, just get down there and help her. She and her people are good folk.”

“Yea, sure. No problem… hold on…” Sam popped open the glove compartment and shuffled around for a small notepad and pen. Once he pulled them out he said, ”Gimme the address.” Then scribbled down the information Bobby relayed to him. Bobby said one or two more things which made Sam frown a little. Then they said their goodbyes and Sam tucked his phone away.

“We are not…” Dean started.

“What? Why?” Sam shifted in his seat, his right knee leaning against the glove compartment. “What else are we gonna do right now? Besides, I already said we would.”

“Dammit Sam.” Dean faked a half hearted snarl which did little to hide his growing curiosity.

Sam just chuckled and fingered the edge of the open car window. “Just drive….”

————————————————————————————————————

Ten hours later, the brothers pulled up along the street where Bobby’s directions had lead them. The address turned out to be a massive old corner lot in North Long Beach surrounded by iron bar fencing. The lot ate up nearly two city blocks and the south facing entrance onto the lot was a massive dual rolling gate at least fifteen feet wide. Two big advertising billboards flanked the south facing edge and the eastern edge. As the Impala slipped closer to one, movement along the billboard’s walk way caught Sam’s eye. Dean angled the Impala through the gate and into a large parking area full of cars. In the center of the lot sat a large warehouse that looked as if it were connected to other buildings going further in on the lot. Other people were parking their cars and heading towards an entrance in the front of the warehouse. Many were talking excitedly, smiling and laughing with each other.

“What the hell is going on here?” Dean scowled and guided the Impala to park off to the side along the fence. He turned off the engine.“What are all these people doing here? Are we in the right place?”

The brothers exited the Impala and Sam pointed to a billboard, “Dean…”

From their vantage, they could see two men on the billboard walkway, standing as if keeping guard. Both were dressed in camouflage military gear. One wore goggles and kept talking into a walkie-talkie.

Sam turned and something on the fence itself caught his eye. He took a closer look at the iron bars on the fence. “…oh my god….Look…” He ran his fingers over their surface as Dean came around the Impala to stand next to him and lean in to look for himself. “There are small sigils soldered into all these bars!”

Dean scanned the sigils, then leaned back and scoped out the length of the fence, then eyed the billboards again. He gave a silent nod as Sam continued, “Have you seen anything like this before?”

Dean slapped Sam’s shoulder with the back of his hand and started moving towards the warehouse. “Let’s go. We don’t want the chicken hawks up there taking notice of us….” Dean nudged his chin in the direction of the billboards. Sam nodded and followed.

They made their way through the parking area to what appeared to be a main entry of the warehouse. Massive metal doors opened outward and two big burly men dressed in black business suits were stopping people as they came to the threshold to speak with them. The doors were engraved with similar sigils, as was the massive door’s frame. A sign across the top of the entry said “Sanctuary” in flickering neon script. As they approached, both brothers could hear the thrum of dance music eddying out of the entrance. A group of four giggling college age kids in goth clothing came spilling out of the entrance and past them. One of them had a large Hamsa painted in orange glow paint across his face. He grinned at Dean as they tumbled past the brothers.

Sam stopped. His smile was wide as he let out a light chuckle. “Oh my god, Dean. It’s a dance club.” He nudged Dean’s arm with his elbow and pointed to the large obvious white devils trap embedded into the door’s dark threshold on the ground. Sam’s expression was incredulous. “This is crazy!”

Dean made a “humph” sound deep in his throat and swaggered up to one of the men in black suits. The man nodded to him and said, “I.D.s please.” Dean eyed the man closely and noticed the black points of a tattoo creeping out of the edges of the suit’s collar. He raised his brows in surprise. He knew that tattoo. He and Sam both had one like it on their chests.

“I.D.s please. No cover charge tonight.” The man opened his palm face up. Dean dug into one of his pockets and pulled out a random fake I.D. The man stopped, looked at the I.D., then looked at Dean, then looked at his co-bouncer and frowned. Both men were wearing high tech looking ear pieces.

“We came to see Grace.” Sam blurted out. “Bobby sent us.” Dean turned and gave Sam a ‘what-the-hell-Sammy?!’ look. Sam just gave a light shrug in return.

The second bouncer nodded and gave them a relaxed smile, “The Winchester boys. Nice to meet you. Met your Dad once. Good guy. The name is Roth. Grace said you’d be coming. Let them know at the bar that you’re here.”

“Bobby told you we were coming?” Sam asked.

“Um, no.” both bouncers gave low chuckles and turned away from the brothers to greet new people walking up to the club.

Sam and Dean moved in through the doors into a small lobby of sorts with confusion dotting their faces. They walked past a coat check window that appeared empty and into the main hallway leading into the club. Coming down the hallway they passed through a curtain made of tiny shimmering chains whose combined mass sat about six inches deep and stretched the width of the hallway. It was impossible not to walk through it. Dean started to speak when Sam, grabbed his arm and leaned in fingering the chains that fell gently around them and behind them as they passed through it. “Dean, this is silver….”

“A shifter barrier?!” Dean then realized the hall was covered with more sigils and symbols on its walls. “This place is nuts!”

“I kinda like it Dean. I mean, there isn’t much that can just walk in here beyond your usual human being without getting noticed in a big ugly way.” Sam smiled again as they reached the end of the short hall and were greeted by a huge room filled with light and sound and people just enjoying themselves.

The place was fairly crowded. Colored lights swung and danced over faces and bodies moving with the thrumming beat. The music seemed to come from everywhere, it bounced through the floor into their feet and climbed up into their hips. It was the kind of beat that made you roll with it, move and have sex all night. People laughed and smiled and talked and danced. The brothers could make out another level, a balcony of sorts, just over head where they stood. The stairs up there was just to their left. The bar stretched away along the right hand wall, it’s back glittering with mirrors and colored glass. To the left were booths below and the rest of the balcony where they could see more people talking and laughing. Above everything the ceiling was covered completely with an enormous LED screen display that reached from wall to wall, corner to corner. At the moment an image of the Milky Way swirled and wheeled overhead. In the center was the dance floor with a gigantic glittering disco ball hanging pendulously just out of reach. Against the back wall opposite where the brothers stood at the entrance, more LED screen images covered the surfaces and they could make out the edges of the DJ booth window.

Sam was still smiling, “This is incredible. The music is loud enough to dance to but I don’t have to yell to talk to you. I wonder where the speakers are….” He couldn’t help himself and he started to bounce a bit to the music.

Dean made a face and looked his tall brother up and down, “You like this …..music?”

Sam broke into a huge grin, “Jess and I went out a few times. To clubs…to a couple of raves. It was fun.” He peeled off his jacket and shoved it into Dean’s arms. He threw Dean another smile, “I’ll meet you at the bar!” And he slipped onto the dance floor, bouncing and smiling. He was absorbed into the group, people smiling back at him, high fiving him, bouncing with him. Their fun was becoming infectious to each other.

Dean wadded up his brothers jacket, punched it once and shook his head. “Dammit Bobby… what have you gotten us into?” Dean made his way to the bar, distracted once or twice by some of the many attractive women at the edge of the dance floor. But something about this place nagged at him. Something this locked down against supernatural predators? It was too good to be true.

“Well, except for this music.” He rolled his eyes as the beat shifted seamlessly into a faster funkier rhythm, some kind of deep bass breaking through the air. He found a spot near the end corner with his back to the entrance where he could keep an eye on Sam’s grinning bouncing head moving around through the dance floor. He sat on Sam’s jacket and no sooner had his elbows found their resting spot on the bar, the bartender slid an ice cold pint of beer in front of him. Dean looked at him confused.

The bartender, a young guy in his mid twenties smiled in an easy going way and nodded, “On the house Mr. Winchester.” He had spiky red hair and a relaxed lanky stance, but Dean could see Hunter’s scars on the kid’s forearms and there was a quick movement to his eyes that spoke of him being accustomed to keeping on guard.

“I didn’t order this….” Dean hesitated and was about to push it away. He was getting annoyed with everyone knowing his name.

“Yea, Grace sent it over for you. I’m supposed to ask you to hang out for a bit.” He offered his hand in friendship, “Hi, I’m Gavin.”

“Call me Dean.” Dean reached over and shook hands with Gavin, and something about the young man put him a little more at ease. Once you’d been hunting as long as Dean had, you got a feeling for other hunters. Gavin seemed earthy, straight forward and reliable. Dean took a taste of the icy beer in front of him. It was smooth and crisp like a good beer should be. Gavin nodded and smiled, then pointed to the “El Sol” tap behind the bar. They traded thumbs up and Gavin moved down the bar to talk to another customer.

Dean shifted and relaxed a little on the barstool. He mulled over in his head all the safety precautions this place had against supernatural beings. The sigils. The symbols. The devils traps. The silver chain curtain. He mused over how the staff seemingly was trained and protected as well.

He took a long drink of his beer and began noticing some of the people in the crowd. Some of them also had the anti-possession tattoos. Most wore some kind of silver on them. Somehow this was not your usual crowd of humans. Someone had educated them. Someone had shown them how to protect themselves. He wondered how many carried salt with them and then he realized no one had patted he or Sam down for the weapons they carried. Dean smoothed his free hand over his jacket, feeling the form and shape of his own pearl handled 1911 in its holster. He suddenly felt a lot better.

He drained his beer down and turned to find Gavin. Instead he discovered Roth, the doorman, at his elbow, a gracious hand extending towards the other end of the dance floor inviting Dean in that direction. Dean slid off the stool and grabbed Sam’s jacket. With Roth’s direction he made his way between the bar and the dance floor. Roth guided him around the other end of the bar, and they made their way behind it to move around the wall, through a door, and up a half flight of stairs into the DJ booth. Roth escorted him in, handed him a bottled El Sol and then turned and left.

The booth stretched the width of the club and had a spacious open area cut from the wall to view the dance floor and the rest of the bar. Just under this window was a table stacked with all kinds of electronic devices and items that Dean figured was the DJ gear. He recognized two turntables but beyond that everything else was just an array of tiny lights, knobs and sliders that he didn’t understand. Against the wall opposite the door were stacked more electronic boxes, but Dean had seen things like them at rock concerts and knew they were massive high powered amplifiers. The booth was barely five feet deep, and on right side of the DJ table itself were shelves of records, CDs and other small boxes. Below the booth were shelves with books and tomes, a few bottles like Dean always saw on Bobby’s shelves and other non-weapon hunter gear. To the left of the DJ table was a built in booth seat that had one or two lumpy pillows tossed on it. Dean dropped Sam’s jacket there.

_([music: Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin - Dirty Funker Remix](http://youtu.be/mmxxaG4QU2c))_

Dean leaned against the side of this in front of the door, took a drink off his beer and finally made note of the DJ….It was a woman. He had to stop himself from choking on the beer in his mouth. She was focused on the knobs and buttons and lights on the DJ table and didn’t show any signs of acknowledging he was there. So Dean took a moment and let his curiosity look her over.

She was short, maybe five foot two or so, but she was wearing these silver platform sneakers that looked like they had fallen through time from the 1970s and they bumped her a bit taller. She wore a simple white t-shirt and these black velvet pants that made Dean stop and appreciate the curve on her backside for longer than he would ever admit out loud to anyone. She had silver fingerless gloves on her hands, which made them look small and almost childlike as they moved over the DJ gear. He couldn’t see her face because her head was covered in this mass of purple and black dreadlocks with thin silver ribbons cascading all around.

She had headphones cupped over both ears, with the bridge between the ear pieces slung under her chin. She slipped the headphones off and set them to the side, and bumped up the sound in the booth ever so slightly. Her body posture shifted, oozed an overt confidence suddenly and Dean realized she was working the crowd up as the music ebbed and shifted.

She rocked back onto one foot as one finger hovered over a blinking green halo ringed button. The other hand’s fingers spidered between two different sliders, one that moved laterally and one that moved side to side. She turned abruptly and looked directly at Dean over her shoulder. Her eyes were dark, intense and mischievous. A glittering spark twinkled in them for a moment before she looked back to the dance floor. Dean nearly dropped his beer bottle and shifted to stand up more, suddenly feeling both un-nerved and thrilled in equal parts. And then it caught his ears what music she was weaving in over the thumping beat.

Dean cocked his head to the side as the ever familiar stacco guitar of Jimmy Page’s filtered in and Robert Plants iconic wail rang out, “AhhhhAHHHahhhh AH!” Dean couldn’t believe it. She was playing the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’.  As the rest of Plant’s classic lyrics took over Dean just closed his eyes. He let the music wash over him and into him. He sat down and realxed, a hidden smile on his lips as he nodded his head slightly to the beat. The crowd on the dance floor was now jumping up and down almost as one entity, people waving their arms and pumping their fists, laughing and shouting with the excitement over the track.

_“We come from the land of the ice and snow,_   
_From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow._   
_The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,_   
_To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!”_

_“On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore…..”_

Dean was suddenly aware that the DJ had moved and she was suddenly leaning in close to him. She propped her right arm to brace herself against the back edge of the booth seat as she brushed her cheek against his. She leaned in to say something next to his left ear and her left hand grasped his free left hand into hers in a gentle welcoming gesture. “I’m Grace, I’m so happy you could come….” Dean inhaled and she smelled like the night air after a summer rain storm. She leaned back and pulled away smiling this warm, happy, genuine smile. She stepped back toward the DJ gear and let his hand slip away from hers. Dean’s hand suddenly felt too empty and too clumsy. He swallowed deep and felt oddly nervous and warm at the same time.

_“We come from the land of the ice and snow,_   
_From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow._   
_How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore,_   
_Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.”_

_“On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore…..”_

Grace was back at the DJ equipment now almost like nothing had just happened. The crowd was moving, arms reaching up through the window at her, their beaming happy faces bouncing below them. She reached out to them and grasped their hands as she smiled with delight. She leaned out to high-five this one guy’s long reach. Dean suddenly realized it was Sam and he was glowing with a smile that had the wattage of a nuclear reactor.

_“You better stopppppp…….. You better stopppppp…….. You better stopppppp……..”_

_“Tonight you better stop and rebuild all your ruins,_   
_For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing._   
_Tonight you better stop and rebuild all your ruins,_   
_For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing……”_   
  
_“You better stopppppp…….. You better stopppppp…….. You better stopppppp……..”_

Grace blew a kiss out to the crowd and slipped her headphones back against her ears, her focus solely on the gear and the music now. Her hip bounced with the beat and she slipped one dial over, then looked over a read out on a computer screen that was part of the gear, then flicked another switch, slipped one of the sliders over halfway, then slowly the rest of the way as the Zeppelin song gave way to a new beat, a bumping bass line and thin high crisp clap of a cymbal.

Dean settled into the booth seat and finished his beer. The door beside him opened, and Gavin stepped in carrying another beer and several bottles of water. He handed Dean the beer and walked over to Grace playfully bumping hips with her in time with the music. Gavin bent down and planted a kiss on Grace’s cheek, then placed the water on the edge of the DJ table near Dean. He flashed Dean a grin and then left.

Dean spent the next four hours slowing drinking down the beers brought to him. He felt comfortable and relaxed. He was content to just hang out for once and just observe. He sometimes watched the crowd go nuts for a certain vocal chorus or a certain bass line drop. Every so often Dean would see Sam’s massive form dance or bounce in front of the window. Sometimes he just watched Grace. She had a low key confidence about her and she seemed completely in her element working the music and the crowd. Only once did she glance back at Dean, and when she did, she threw him a warm playful smile. It gave him a weird lump in his throat but he just took another drink of the beer and ignored it.

Out on the dance floor Sam was just letting go completely. He let all his stress, tension and worries pour out of him through the physicality of bouncing around to the music. The people on the dance floor had instantly welcomed him with smiles and hellos. Now after hours of jumping around with them, some had greeted him offering their names. Others had given him playful innocent hugs. A few had offered to buy him drinks. He didn’t read into anything or think about anything. He just allowed himself to exist in the moment. Right now, that moment was just saturated with fun.


	2. Chapter 2

The party in the club finally wound down. Grace had ended the night with a lower tempo track and once the music finished, people lingered talking in some places and laughing loudly in other spots. The staff moved through the crowd guiding people to leave. Sam said good night to the people he had met, getting friendly hugs good-bye from most of them. Once they left he made his way over to the bar and flopped down onto a bar stool. He took a long look around the bar for Dean. Sam was damp with sweat and for the first time in a long while was smiling deliriously. His brows knit up a bit in concern when he didn’t see Dean at first. But then Dean came wandering around from behind the bar at the end near the DJ booth with Sam’s jacket fisted into his right hand.

“Cinderella done with the ball?” Dean smirked and tossed the jacket at Sam.

Sam caught the jacket, shook his head and smiled. He was still feeling the natural high from the adrenaline of dancing so much. He smoothed out his jacket and grinned wider. “You can say whatever you are going to say. I needed that. And I’m not apologizing for it.”

Dean rubbed the back of his neck and rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to give Sam hell about abandoning him but then Gavin walked over to both of them and extended his hand to Sam in greeting. They shook hands and exchanged names, and Gavin called over others members of the staff one by one as they passed by finishing their closing duties. Gavin introduced each, and then they said their good nights and went on their way. Every person had shown some characteristic of either being protected by some sigil or sign tattooed on their body, or they openly wore some kind of hunter gear. Many had scars and marks that showed they had seen some kind of rough trouble at some point in their lives. But all of them held this easy going air about them. It expressed,”No worries, we can handle this.” on some level.

When it was just the three of them left by the bar, Dean frowned a little and looked at Gavin, “So what’s going on around here man? What’s the story? You’ve got a massive devil’s trap so big it can been seen from space blocking the main entry. People’ve got anti-possession tattoos. There are protective wards all over the place. You’ve got guys keeping watch all along the billboards. This place is tighter than Fort Knox. What the hell?”

Gavin gave an easy smile as if this was something he was expecting from Dean. He held up a hand in surrender and said, “Its Sanctuary.” as if that explained everything. “Grace just wanted a place where people could come and know they were safe. Know they wouldn’t get hassled by things that go bump in the night.”

“More like we needed rather than wanted.” Roth walked up, pulling his tie off, “We all needed it. These are dark and dangerous times. There are awful things walking around everywhere. So we decided to step up our game.” He gave a direct flat stare in Dean’s direction, as if challenging him.

“So you tell people about all this?” Dean furrowed his brow and waved his hand randomly at the ceiling. “You tell people about vampires and ghosts and demons?”

Roth held his flat gaze on Dean. ”How else do you expect people to protect themselves?”

Gavin chuckled, “We even pass out pamphlets and brochures showing people how to do it. And we aren’t just locked down from devils. There are Enochian sigils covering the building as well.”

“Angels can’t even get in here?” Sam got up off the bar stool. He and Dean threw each other a knowing look.

Roth held up a hand as Dean opened his mouth to say something, misinterpreting the exchange between the brothers. “Look, I get where you are coming from. But right now we have bigger problems than debating the education of the masses. We have a killer on the loose here that isn’t anything like we’ve ever encountered before.”

“He’s right,” Grace had walked up and was standing next to Sam. Their differences in height would have been comical if not for the somber mood. She had a bag slung over one shoulder and her headphones in her other hand. She looked directly at Dean when she spoke, “But nothing more is going down tonight. We have traps set up near the spots where previous attacks have been made. We’ll have to check them in the morning to see what they turn up.”

“We left bait near infra red cameras that are triggered to record video when they are set off. We are hoping to have footage of ……whatever it is… by morning.” Gavin shifted and rested his hands in his pants pockets.

“So you think it’s corporeal?” Sam asked.

“It’s left a few partial foot prints. The police had taken molds and sent them off for analysis, but so far it’s turned up nothing. It also left teeth marks in some of the victims. Also unidentified by the coroner.” Roth eased out of his suit jacket and slung it over his shoulder. You could see the tight bulk of muscle covering his frame now.

“Okay…“ Grace broke in, “It’s late. Let’s get some sleep and we’ll go over everything tomorrow after breakfast. Right now I need to get out of these shoes.” Her demeanor softened and she looked at Sam and Dean with a gentle smile, “You’ll be bunking at my house in my guest rooms if that’s cool with you?”

“Sure, that’d be great.” Sam smiled back at her and then glared at Dean daring him to protest real non-motel beds to sleep in.

“Awesome.” She turned to Roth. ”Do you mind locking up alone tonight?”

Roth replied, “No my Lady.” And then he gave her a full bow, the kind a knight would give his queen as he made off to protect her castle. There wasn’t a hint of irony or sarcasm in his words or his gesture. Instead both were filled with a gentle reverence. Then he turned and made his way behind the bar, disappearing through one of the doors into the back of the club.

Grace looked at Sam and Dean’s questioning faces and she turned a little red with embarrassment. Before anyone could say anything, Gavin lightly touched her arm and said he’d bring her car around front. Then he left for the main entry way.

Grace stood still a moment, her dark eyes watching both brothers as they stood there. She raised her eyebrows and shifted her mouth to the side. One brow crept slightly higher than the other. It was an awkward but adorable expression. “Okay well, let’s go.” She turned slowly on her heel and started to walk with purposeful steps after Gavin.

“My…. Lady?” Sam easily fell in walking next to Grace, his long stride catching up to her in just a few steps.

She extended her hand to him and smiled, “Hi Sam, I’m Grace.” The hint of sarcasm in her voice was obvious as she tried to stall him. It was as if she knew what he was going to ask.

“Yea I know that… but…” he took a firm hold of her hand and stopped, making her stop as well. He held onto her hand and didn’t let go. “What’s this all about? And how did everyone know we were coming if Bobby didn’t call first?”

Dean remained where he had been standing. Feet firmly planted in a power stance with his hands shoved into his jacket pockets. He had formulated a theory about Grace when he was in the DJ booth, but now he wasn’t so sure if he had called it right. He watched his brother and Grace closely, and realized that Sam was still holding her hand. Dean rolled his shoulders under his jacket and pondered why that made him so uncomfortable.

Grace shook her head and pulled her hand away slowly. “That’s such a long story. I just…. I can’t…not right now” She looked over at Dean, her dark eyes shining. She looked back at Sam and said in a frank tone, “Can’t we just do this tomorrow? I’ll reward you with pancakes or waffles for your patience.”

They heard a car horn honk outside and Grace turned quickly to move to the hallway leading out. She broke through the silver curtain and the brothers lost sight of her.

Sam looked over at Dean as he crossed the distance to him. Dean slapped Sam on the shoulder as he walked by.”Come on little raver princess….”

“But Dean!” Sam followed Dean through the silver curtain out to the lobby.

“I know Sammy. I know.” Dean stopped abruptly and looked at Sam, “She walked over the devils traps. She went through the curtain. I thought maybe she was an angel….”Dean gave a light shrug.

“But the Enochian signs wouldn’t let her in here either.” Sam finished for Dean.

Dean tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, “If Gavin was telling us the truth. I don’t see any Enochian sigils here do you?”

“No but there have been times when we couldn’t see them and Cas could.” Sam looked back as the lights in the club started to be turned off.

“Cas!” Dean snapped his fingers and smiled. He moved quickly out of the building and through the large doors. Only one was open now, the other closed and bolted from the inside. Sam followed him out into the night air.

A small red car sat next to the entrance. Grace was in the driver’s seat now, and Gavin was leaning against the passenger door with a paper in his hands. He handed it to Dean and said, “Here. The directions to our house….” Again that knot lumped inside Dean’s gut turned over. He ignored it and took the paper.

“You and Grace live together?” Sam peered over Dean’s shoulder to look at the paper in his hands.

“I’m her cousin. I live above her garage in the back. You’ll have to come to the back of the house and park there in the garage. There won’t be room on the street.” He gave them a thumbs up and hopped into the car. Grace leaned over a bit to look at Sam, her dreadlocks framing her face. Then she looked at Dean and her dark eyes met his green ones. They shone with some kind of recognition or apprehension or… Dean couldn’t figure it out. Then she sat back, put her seat belt on, and drove off across the parking lot.

The second they pulled away Dean had his cell phone open and was punching in a phone number. He needed some answers and to quit thinking about the weird affect Grace was having on him. He held the phone to his ear and waited while the other end rang. He paced briefly with impatience until a voice answered on the other end. “Cas??”

“Where are you Dean? I’ve been waiting for you to call.” Cas’s gruff but deadpan voice almost sounded annoyed.

“We need you to get here.” Dean rattled off the address for him. Suddenly there was a rustling rush and a small gust of wind. Sam’s hair fluttered a little and he instinctively took a step back.

Castiel was abruptly standing behind Dean’s shoulder. “Okay.”

Dean startled, nearly dropping his cell phone. “Dammit Cas! Do you have to DO that?!”

Castiel ignored him and step towards the night club building looking it over. It had caught his full attention instantly. Then he looked at the billboards and the fence. The men that had been up on the billboards earlier were gone but something pulled Cas’s vision that way anyway. He looked back at the night club and cocked his head curiously to the side. “This is different….”

“What do you see Cas?” Dean looked at the trench coat clad angel.

“There are wards on this building that I haven’t seen in…. centuries. Old signs. Things that we thought were destroyed when the Library of Alexandria burned down….” Cas walked a little closer to the building and then stopped.

“Any Enochian things? To keep angels out?” Dean followed Cas with his eyes. His face concerned and his eyes filled with questioning.

“Yes.” Cas said, “And more. There are ley lines that are part of this building’s structure that….” He stopped and looked at Sam and Dean, “Who built this?”

“We dunno who built it. But there’s a group of hunters who own it and work out of it.” Sam gestured to the building then thumbed over his shoulder in the direction of the exit gates, “We were going to go stay with one of them for the night. Should we not go?”

“Let me see the address…” Cas came over to Dean, his eyes on the paper Dean held. Cas stopped; nearly standing on Dean’s toes he was so close. Dean rolled his eyes and showed the paper to Castiel.

Cas read the address, looked at Dean and then at Sam, “Go. I’ll meet you there.” And then suddenly he was gone. A light breeze puffed past both brothers.

“You could just ride with us in the car!!” Dean yelled into the air. He threw his hands up in exasperation and handed Sam the paper. They walked back over to the Impala. Dean shook his finger up and down as he went. “If I find out that Bobby knew what the hell is up around here and he didn’t tell us, I’m gonna….”

“Dean.” Sam stopped at the back of the Impala.

“WHAT?!” Dean turned hard and looked at his brother.

“Bobby did tell me something on the phone.” Sam’s tone became quiet and serious. “Dad… saved Grace’s life. Years ago when she was a little girl.”

“Did he tell you anymore about what happened?” Dean opened his door.

“He said Grace would fill us in on everything. He didn’t sound worried Dean. It was all very matter of fact when he spoke.” Sam moved around the car and opened his door.

Dean slid into the driver’s seat and shut his door. Sam got in as well, but Dean sat there for a long silent moment and looked at the steering wheel. Very quietly he said, “That’s the weird part about this. I don’t feel my hackles going up over any of this and they should be. We both should have our spider sense raging out of control.” he paused a moment and then said, “But this feels so safe. So right. That’s what has my head turned around. When has anything ever been safe or right for us? I mean yes, maybe there are moments. Times when we’re good and things are good. But then it all falls apart. It always falls apart.”

Sam said nothing and just looked down at his hands for a moment. Then he reached over and clasped Dean on the shoulder, “I know.” He took a deep breath, “Let’s…. Let’s get to Grace’s house. Maybe Cas will be more talkative when we get there.”

“And if he’s not?” Dean looked over at Sam. They both knew that sometimes Castiel wasn’t always helpful in ways they needed him to be.

“Well then… for now at least…. just for tonight… let’s let it go?” Sam gave his brother’s shoulder a squeeze.

Dean shook his head but started the Impala’s engine anyway. He gave it a bit of gas and let the rumbling throat of the engine call out into the night. He pulled away from the now darkened parking lot, drove through the gates and pulled out onto the street.

 

—————————————————————

 

High above, the waxing crescent moon cut the dark of the sky with a silvery brightness. And a few miles away, something shaggy with massive shoulders lumbered along the L.A. River’s edge. The moon faintly haloed its hairy hulking form as it thumped slowly along the cemented edges of the embankment. It huffed and snorted, turning to sniff into the air. A scent caught its nose and it grumbled with a low throaty growl. It turned in the direction of the scent and plowed through some trees and shrubs in its way. It broke branches and left leaves scattered. It paused listening, as a sound coming from the direction the scent was coming from. It moved quicker, and then halted as it came upon a small goat tied to a tether against a tree. It hovered a moment breathing in the scent of the animal, then it huffed and took in the other smells nearby. It scanned the area with its eyes briefly. Stepping up close to the now panicked and wailing goat, it reached down to scoop the animal up in one hand like paw. It shook the goat making it wail louder, then in a swift motion brought the animal high into the air. It pummeled the goat against the ground breaking the animal’s neck, silencing it. Grasping the dead goat with both hands it brought it to its gaping maw. It bit and crunched and sucked the goat’s entrails down, drooling and slurping as it ate.

And as it did so, a video camera mounted on a tree branch silently recorded all of it.


	3. Chapter 3

Dean drove in silence with his brother next to him. The light from the street lamps rolled in an even cadence across the hood of the Impala. The night air was cool and carried a hint of jasmine that filtered to float through the car. Few vehicles were out on the road at this time of night so they pretty much had the streets to themselves. Somehow the lights seemed to hit green for them at each intersection they came to, but Dean was so lost in thought he didn’t notice.

What was it about this woman that kept making his insides knot up? Was it just being unnerved that they had so openly carried on their hunter lifestyle? That they almost flaunted it? Or that they were all so at ease with it? Was he envious? They almost felt like some strange tribe that had figured how to live on the edge of a volcano without worrying openly about eruptions. “Why am I being so hard on them? They gave me great beer, for free, all night. Except for the weirdness at the door, they were all really nice to me and Sammy. And she even found a way to work some of the music I like into what she was playing. And well, she’s got beautiful eyes and a great…..”

“Dude. You do know you are saying that out loud.” Sam was looking over at him with his eyebrows raised high on his forehead.

Dean shot him a quick look and then shrugged with a smirk, “Yea, sure of course…” playing it off like he had meant to do it when really he hadn’t.

“Uh-huh. Right.” Sam paused and then played up his own smirk with a smile on the edges, “You like her….”

“What? No. Don’t be ridiculous.” Dean shot Sam a sour look and then said, “So what’s your take on all this?” He was trying to change the subject.

Sam gave him a ‘so-you-are-gonna-be-like-that’ look and said, “I think she’s a fantastic DJ. I mean, the charisma she had for the crowd was incredible. And the music she played was awesome. She read the crowd so well. It’s like she knew what we wanted before we did. Doesn’t hurt that she’s kind of adorable too.” Sam watched Dean for his reaction.

Dean pulled his mouth into a hard line and kept his eyes on the road. He shifted in his seat, “We’re almost there.” He turned off the main street onto a tree lined neighborhood road. They went a few blocks and came to the house as it sat on a corner lot. It was one of those homes that had been built as a small cottage style house in the 1920s or 30s, and then had extra rooms added on later. The front part of the house was single floor and had a wide porch that viewed the yard. The back part of the house was two floors tall and this part of the lot was lined along the street with a high wood fence and oak trees.

Dean brought the Impala around to the back to find a spacious three car detached garage facing a back alley way shared by all the houses on that street. One of the garage doors was open wide. Dean drove the Impala in next to the red car Gavin and Grace had been in earlier. The third space in the garage was being taken up by a vintage motorcycle in various stages of repair. Directly in front of where Dean was parking the Impala was a door to the back yard. Gavin stood there smiling, leaning against it. Dean shut off the engine and as they got out Gavin tapped the switch on the wall that activated the garage door to shut. The brothers grabbed their bags out of the car and then Gavin lead them out into the backyard. Above the garage was an apartment, its stairs leading up from the door they had just exited.

When Sam caught his first look of the back yard he stopped and smiled, “This is really nice.”

Gavin beamed proudly, “Hey thanks. I work hard at it.”

The back yard was a wonderland of flowers and fruit trees. It had a koi pond and a small raised Japanese style gazebo with a hot tub in it. To their left, the largest oak tree held a decent sized oriental style tree house. A wood ladder was leaning there to lead you to a small deck on its side. Gavin walked through the yard beside the fruit trees towards a small raised back porch where the door into the house was.

Gavin opened the door, “Are you guys hungry? We have left over chili.” He led them through a small laundry area and into a back living room area. It had a large screen TV, video game consoles, a sizable stereo, and lots of comfortable seating. Where there weren’t windows, the walls were covered in book shelves. There was even a fireplace. This room ate up most of the bottom floor of the back part of the house. Spiral stair wound up to the second floor in the far corner. Gavin led them through an archway next to the stairs, past a bathroom and into the old part of the house in front. The archway opened into the kitchen which held a booth style eating area. Like the night club, the house was peppered with sigils and symbols. Some were worked into the window frames; some were made as art to hang on the walls. Unlike the club, these were much more subtle and more decorative.

Gavin did an over exaggerated flourish to show them the kitchen and then brought them back to the stairs going to the second floor. “Help yourselves to the food in the fridge.” He said and took them up to the second floor into a center hallway with two doors on the left, one centered on the right, and one door at the end of the hall. Gavin pointed to the doors on their left, “Take your pick. Bath is at the end of the hall. See you in the morning.” He clapped Sam on the shoulder in a good natured manner and then headed back down stairs.

Sam shrugged and opened the door closest to him. The room wasn’t small, but it wasn’t big either. Inside was a simple wood frame bed, a few pieces of furniture, a couple of lamps… the usual guest room fair. A handmade quilt was spread out on top of the bed. On the walls were framed photos of old town clocks. Dean opened the next room down and found the same only the photos in the frames were old images of great sail ships. They went into their respective rooms and dropped their bags down. Dean walked over and tapped on the shared wall between the rooms. Sam tapped back in answer. Dean nodded and was about to crash on the bed when his cell phone rang.

It was Cas.

“Where are you?” Dean asked. There was a hint of worry in his voice.

“I can’t come in.” the angel said, “I’m out on the sidewalk.”

Dean closed his cell phone and turned to find Sam standing there in the doorway. They both left and headed outside to the front of the house. They found Cas standing on the side walk at the edge of the front yard, his hands hanging at his sides as he looked at the house.

“So?” Dean asked as they came near Castiel.

“It’s warded. Like the other place. This is as close as I can get.” Cas looked at them and narrowed his eyes, “The wards are part of the grounds. Under the earth. No demon, no shifter, no angel, no monster could set foot on that land and not be repelled. I’m pretty sure only humans can pass.” he paused, “What does it look like on the inside?”

“Normal” Sam gave a quick short shrug, “Nice actually. Some visible symbols but nothing we haven’t seen before.”

“Huh.” Cas said flatly and cast his odd gaze back to the house.

“Okay, this still doesn’t tell us anything.” Dean threw his hands up a little in exasperation.

Sam thought for a moment and then looked at Cas, “Is she another Prophet?”

“No.” Cas looked back at them, “She does have a resonant variable energy… “He paused thinking of a proper word, “….cloud… around her. I saw it when they arrived here and got out of their vehicle.”

“A what?” Dean narrowed his eyes and turned his head slightly to the side as he looked at Cas.

“A resonant varia….” Cas started to say.

“He means I have the Mark of the Gods on me.” Grace was walking towards them on the grass of her lawn. She stopped just a few feet from them. She was barefoot and wearing a dark cotton kimono dotted with pale flowers. The dreadlocks were gone from her hair. Instead dark brown damp waves hung around her face and against her shoulders. Her hands rested easy at her sides. She was looking directly at Castiel with an even steady gaze but her eyes flickered with awe, admiration and respect.

“Yes.” Cas said simply and then was silent.

“What does THAT mean?!” Dean took a step toward Grace, the frustration visible on his face.

Grace took a small step closer to Dean and in an even toned voice she said, “Do you know what an Oracle is?” He dark eyes searched his.

“Like in the Matrix?” Dean raised one eyebrow.

Sam stepped closer in and said, “Oracles were people the gods spoke through directly. Like a prophet or someone with predictions. In ancient Greece they had prominent ones in Pythia …..and the priestess to Apollo at Delphi.”

“Yes” Grace looked at Sam, “And do you know what a Sibyl is?”

“They prophesied at certain holy sites, under the divine influence of a deity…. A lot like an Oracle.” Sam replied.

“Not exactly.” Castiel said but he didn’t move, “Oracles were mouth pieces for deities to speak through.” He leveled his gaze at Grace and his tone became serious, “Sibyls are more than that.”

“We’re two way streets.” Grace paused and gave a sad smile to Cas, “We facilitate conversations between gods and men.”

A light breeze blew past them all. Cas stood immobile but the edges of his coat fluttered. Sam frowned a little in thought before looking over at Dean. His brother’s eyes hadn’t left Grace’s face. She was looking back at Dean now, and the sadness in her eyes had grown deeper.

“But this is good right?” Sam spoke up, “I mean, Grace… you can talk to God then. You can find out what, why all this is happening…. You can….”

Grace kept her eyes on Dean but it was Dean who spoke. “You can’t do it. Can you?” His words were gruff.

“No. We can only communicate with the one specific deity that we are aligned to.” she said softly. “I’m a descendant of the Cimmerian Sibyl so…..”

Cas spoke quietly now, but his gaze was still scrutinizing Grace, “That Sibyl’s son, Evander, founded the shrine of Pan in Rome.”

“Pan? The goat legged guy who chased women and drank?  He was a satyr and all about sex and….” Sam stopped.

“Sounds like my kinda guy.” Dean broke into a smirk. Grace quirked an eyebrow at him in amused response but the sadness was still in her eyes.

Sam said, “Pan. That would fit with the night club and…… Does that mean you talk to Pan?!” He titled his head looking at Grace, his intellectual curiosity brimming over.

Cas began to speak, “Pan is gone. He… was removed from this world’s equation and repurposed. She’s a Sibyl without a deity.”

“Repurposed?! What does that mean?” Sam frowned not enjoying the implication. “Someone killed the god Pan and then recycled him?”

Grace shook her head and looked down at her hands, “He was….” She took in a deep breath and continued, “Hunted. Then bound and…” she paused a moment looking for the right word, “Banished.”

“Banished? Is that possible Cas?” Dean looked at him with in-credulousness.

“There are people who have been charged with the task of balancing the Universe. As man evolved or progressed, changes needed to be made. Some entities had certain duties and when those duties were no longer of use, their energy was caught and repurposed into something else.” Cas kept looking at Grace, his head tilting ever so slightly to his left.

Dean planted his hands on his hips and his face echoed what was going on in his and Sam’s heads. This was a lot to take in. “People. People hunting gods. People ‘repurposing’ them into…. Into what?!”

Grace looked up at Dean, “We don’t know.” She looked at Cas gently imploring him, “Do you?”

Castiel gave a small rough sigh and shook his head, “You’d have to ask those that banished him.”

At this Grace just gave a serious nod, as if this information was actually useful and something she would look into later. Dean took a step closer to Grace gesturing to Cas, “You know who banished him?”

“No, of course not. It happened in the 30’s before I was born. But I know the current group of god hunters, and I can ask them.” She gave him a stern look now and reached over to touch his arm, “I know this is all crazy and nuts and hard to take in…. And honestly it REALLY doesn’t mean a damn thing right now. What you need to know is that I’m basically a radio antennae drawing in visions, dreams, images and information from all over the place with no guide and no anchor to give it purpose. So I use it the only way I can, and that’s to help the hunters here in LA county fight off the spooks, the monsters and the demons.”

“Is this why everyone knew we were coming without having heard from Bobby first?” Sam said.

“And how she knew I liked Led Zeppelin….” Dean narrowed his eyes a little and gestured with his hand at his head, “So you can read minds?!”

“I pick up on things.” Grace gave that funny sideways look again that she had at the nightclub and it shut down Dean’s ire. Then she turned to look at Cas, hesitating at first, and then making purposeful eye contact. They both stood very still for a long moment and there was some kind of silent communication going on between them. A slow warm smile spread over Grace’s face. Cas’s eyes softened and he raised his chin slightly. He glanced at Sam and Dean, then back to Grace. Her smile was briefly radiant and she nodded but tears welled up in her eyes.

Dean looked back and forth between the two of them, “Hey… hey that’s not fair. Share with the class!”

Castiel looked at Dean and almost smiled, “I’ll be back.” And then suddenly he was gone.

Dean was about to fume when Grace stepped over and gently took hold of his hand. She looked at Sam and said, “Come on. Let’s get some sleep. We have a lot to do in the morning. We will talk more then.” She tugged Dean back into the house.

Sam followed briefly and then stopped, “Hey but what about the wards and the Library of Alexandria and….?” He was alone on the lawn. He gave a tired sigh and walked inside house.

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

The furry hulking mass had finished eating the insides of the goat. It plopped the carcass unceremoniously on the ground and then lumbered over to a nearby tree. It stood there a long moment, peeing on the trunk. It’s pungent urine soaking the bark. It made a low satisfied rumbling noise and then turned to head back in the direction it had come from. It took it’s time, making slow steady heavy steps back through the trees towards the L.A. river.

The moment the thing was gone, there was a light rustle in one of the boughs of the trees. A tall figure with a ropey gracefulness slid from the tree to the ground. It was the size and form of a man, but their eyes came pale and luminous from under the cowl of its hooded cloak. That cloak had been wrapped closely around its body while in the tree but now unfurled and belled out around man’s long legs. The figure made its way to the goat carcass to examine it. Then it went to the tree. It removed what looked to be a vial from within its cloak and then used this to scoop up a tiny portion of the urine soaked ground by the tree’s base. Then the figure stood and followed the hulking mass.


	4. Chapter 4

Dean woke, and half stretched. He rolled out of bed and rubbed one eye lazily. He stood and shuffled over to the window, parting the white curtains with the back of his hand. The sun was higher in the sky than he would have liked, but it wasn’t near noon yet. He had slept with his clothes on and now looked down on them making a small ‘blegh’ sound. As he turned to reach for his bag there was a tap on his door. Sam cracked the door open and poked his head in. He was obviously just out of the shower.

“Your turn… “ Sam paused and then said with a teasing grin, “Surprised you slept in your bed last night.”

If the pillow had been within reach, Dean would have whipped it at his brother. Instead he just made a semi-rude gesture and pushed past Sam into the hallway. The smell of bacon coming from downstairs hit him and made his stomach rumble. Sam just continued chuckling and went into his room to drop his bag there.

Dean entered the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. He wasn’t in the mood for Sam’s teasing. When he and Grace had come in the house last night, she had simply said good night then closed herself in her room. He had entertained the thought of finding out what she was like under that kimono and discovered he was fairly disappointed when she shut the door behind her. He emerged from the bathroom a while later, showered and dressed in fresh clothes. He dropped his bag on the bed he had slept in and realized the smell of coffee and bacon coming up from downstairs was just what he needed.

He came down into the kitchen to find Gavin wearing this hilarious frilly flowered 1950s house wife style apron. He was twirling a spatula in his hand in between tending a small army of bacon strips on the built in griddle. Sam was seated in the booth with a mug of coffee and a pile of waffles in front of him. Both Gavin and Sam were laughing boisterously.

“That can’t be true!” Sam laughed.

“No, it happened! Boy scouts honor! And he just stood there like nothing was wrong while he was covered in slime.” Gavin laughed and then looked to Dean standing in the archway. “Oh hey! Grab a plate out of the cabinet there,” he nodded to Dean’s left, “Waffles are warming in the microwave. Bacon will be done in five seconds. Coffee is at your elbow on the counter there.”

Dean zeroed in on the coffee and then did as he was asked. Soon he, Sam and Gavin were seated at the booth with a huge breakfast in front of them.

“Where is Grace?” Sam asked and looked at Dean out of the corner of his eyes. Mischievous lights were glimmering in Sam’s eyes.

Gavin pointed to the back yard, “Tree house. It’s her sanctum. She’ll be down later.”

Instead of picking on Dean, Sam decided maybe now was a good time to get some answers for some of the questions he still had. “So Gavin, how is this place warded like it is?”

“You mean to keep everything out….” Gavin nodded and swirled the end of a piece of bacon in the waffle syrup. “Grace has a lot of books and scrolls that were passed down in her family. A few tablets, really old things from Rome and Athens. Other things from all over, Constantinople, Heliopolis, Liang Zhou, Sparta. They have a ton of stuff in them. They have to be kept in a special sealed case in the basement so they don’t deteriorate. We’ve been working on scanning them into a computer but it’s been going slow. We have to make sure that in the process of doing so, we don’t unleash anything that may be bound to the pages.”

“Bound to the pages??” Dean said with a mouthful of waffle.

“Ages ago, it was possible to bind a demon or a monster into a book or a scroll. To imprison it. We don’t know how to do that anymore, so we want to make sure that we don’t accidentally release anything that someone bound a long time ago.” Gavin said this in a matter of fact way, as if he discussed this daily. “We’ve been really careful but…”

“But you are worried this new killer may have come from one of these books?” Sam leaned forward.

Gavin nodded, took a sip of his coffee and then said, “Scroll actually. During the last dark of the moon we had scanned four scrolls called The Scrolls of the Bjergtrolde. We had a funny energy surge in the electronic equipment we were using, and the power went out for a bit. Roth seemed to think it was nothing, but it’s bugged me a lot.”

“Bjergtrolde?” Dean questioned, “That sounds Norwegian.”

“Close. It’s Danish.” Gavin answered.

“Hey, what was all that ‘Yes my Lady’ stuff with Roth last night?” Sam finished off his waffles and rested his coffee mug in his hand.

“Oh yea… “ Gavin took a deep breath, “Roth. He’s well…. Um…” Gavin looked like he was trying to find the right words and then just said, “A Lares.”

Both brothers just gave Gavin a look that showed they had no idea what he was talking about. So then Gavin said, “Her guardian. He’s the bloodline’s guardian. He’s been around for a few thousand years apparently. He was charged by Pan to be the Sibyl’s champion.” Gavin flexed his arm to emphasize.

“Thousands of years?” Dean blinked.

“Seriously?!” Sam sat back and gaped a little.

“Ask him yourself.” Gavin shrugged. “It’s kind of tragic though. When she dies, he’ll die. She can’t have kids, so the bloodline ends. My side of the family doesn’t count. Only boy babies.”

The three of them sat silently for a while as the brothers absorbed all this new information. Gavin finished up his breakfast and drained his coffee down. Then he went about cleaning up the kitchen. Sam emptied his coffee mug and got up also, and began assisting Gavin with the dishes.

Dean sat there a moment, turning his mug slowly around with his fingers. He took a deep breath and replayed the conversation with Gavin in his head. Finally he finished off his breakfast and handed over the dishes to Gavin. “Where are these scrolls?”

Gavin pointed down, “But you’ll need Grace to get in there.” He pointed to his left eye, “Retna lock.”

Dean made a face of discomfort and turned to walk out to the back yard. Gavin called out after him, “She won’t let you up there….!”

Dean ignored Gavin. She had to know if they released something from those scrolls. She had to know more than she was telling. And he wanted to know what had transpired between her and Castiel last night before the angel pulled his Houdini routine. Dean strode out of the house and into the back yard. He pushed his way through the fruit trees and walked directly to the ladder leading up to the tree house. He started up the ladder and then paused half way.

“Grace?” he barked, “I’m coming up!” He climbed up the rest of the way and eased himself onto the little deck of the tree house. He was relieved to see it was built for adult sized persons. The tree house itself was octagonal in shape and seemed to be about nine feet wide. The wood was oiled and polished smooth. The four sides facing the back yard were beautifully carved archways that were curtained off by hanging tapestries of embroidered sari silk fabric. He could smell the scent of incense floating out but heard nothing. He pushed one of the curtains aside and stepped in. Inside it was just one single room, the back walls of solid wood were covered in more silk draping. A single carved lantern hung from the center of the ceiling, and other candles dotted the floor. To the back on a slightly raised wood platform was a single large square saffron cushion. But the room was unoccupied.

Suddenly Grace was at Dean’s elbow and before he could react in surprise, she gripped his left hand in her hands, twisted and pulled so his wrist was bent backwards at a 90 degree angle pointed at the floor. She pushed down slightly and the sudden sharp pain of the move on his wrist forced him down onto his knees.

“…heyHeyHEY!!” Dean winced and scowled at her as she bent over him. Her look was cross, but the way her hair fell around her face darkened her eyes and made her look more menacing. Dean’s eyes widened as he realized she had placed him in a vulnerable spot. She put more pressure on his hand and the stab of pain made him lean back awkwardly.

She was still wearing the kimono and her feet were bare. She held him firm and leaned in close to his face. Her scent, that fresh smell of a summer thunderstorm, filled his nose. “Do you always make it a habit to barge in on someone’s sacred spaces without asking first?”

Dean blinked in astonishment. He wasn’t sure if he should be impressed at the move she used to bring him down, pissed that she got the drop on him, or incredibly turned on at how this situation had brought them physically so close together. He swallowed hard and croaked out, “Well, yes,…no… but…”

“Take. Your. Shoes. OFF.” Her words came out as a command. Then she leaned back and released her hold on him, “I swear, I hate having dirt tracked up here.” She raised an eyebrow at him and stepped towards the platform and the cushions.

Dean exhaled and rocked back to sit on his ass, shaking out his hand. He pulled off his boots and set them outside the curtain on the deck area. When he looked back at her, she was seated on the cushion leaving room for him to join. She was poised demurely with her hands resting lightly in her lap. He came and sat down beside her, resting his elbows on his knees. Dean angled his head a little and gave her a scrutinizing look.

“It’s an Akido move. Roth taught it to me, as well as a few other self defense things.” Her eyes fell on his hand, “I’m sorry if I bruised you.” But then her eyes met his, and her look said that she meant more his ego than his hand.

Dean gave her one of his ‘fair enough’ looks and then shook his head no.

She nodded and looked down at her hands in her lap. Speaking in a quiet voice, “I don’t know where Castiel went if that’s what you came to find out. Our exchange was… personal” She paused as if she wasn’t sure if she wanted to share this with him, “…he was getting inside my head to make sure I wasn’t a threat to you or to Sam. He was digging inside me to see what I was made of. I laid my heart bare to him to show him I mean you no harm.”

Dean listened and his eyes were slightly stern and searching. He nodded when she was finished and remained silent a little longer. Then he shifted in his seat and moved closer to her. Their thighs were against each other and his hand was leaning behind her against the cushion. Her head was still bowed and he moved in closer so his chin was near her shoulder. “Tell me about the Scrolls of Bjergtrolde”

“13th or 14th Century. Written in Danish… which I can read using my Sight. But I didn’t read them that night. We just scanned them in like the other books. There was a power surge during the third scroll’s scan. And I thought I felt the ground rumble but Gavin said he didn’t feel anything, even though he looked bothered that I had. Then it was just quiet and everything was fine. We scanned the remaining scroll and the rest of the night was calm.” She unlaced her fingers to hold her palms open on her lap, “Then the killings started.”

“Gavin thinks these are connected. You do too, don’t you?” Dean’s voice was almost a whisper. There was a tightness pulling in his stomach, a nervous excitement. Half of it was being so close to her, and half of it was the thrill of being on a case and seeing the pieces of the case sort out.

“I do… but I read the scrolls. All of them.” She gave a small confused sigh, “They talk about Trolls, and Troll hunters. But it’s all in an epic poem format like Beowulf. Not entirely direct. Some of it sounds like instructions and some of it sounds like colorful poetry for the sake of the art. There was a ritual stated on the scrolls, but it was pretty involved. It was for calling a Troll to you, but you had to read certain words aloud, and you would have needed a sacrifice as well as a ritual circle. Just by scanning the scroll it’s pretty impossible that we called a real Troll to Los Angeles….”

Dean had to chuckle. “Trolls. Like… that live under bridges and turn people to stone.”

“I know! But….” She turned slightly to look at him and discovered they were nearly nose to nose. Her breath sucked in a small quick gasp and she froze.

 “You still have doubts.” Dean expressed this but his eyes were focused on her mouth and the curve of her slightly opened lips. She said nothing, but he could feel her pulse rising. In fact the air around them felt charged with a humming wonderful electricity. His mouth curled ever so slightly at the edges into a smile and he leaned in more towards her. He wasn’t thinking about scrolls, or murders, or bridge Trolls now. All he had on his mind was how much he wanted to taste her lips, to feel her in his arms, to enjoy the privacy they had in this little tree house. He came to just brush his lips on hers and she pulled away and stood up nervously.

She paused away from him by the door, her fingers fidgeting with her kimono sleeves. He stood and moved over to her, turning her gently around to face him. He wrapped one arm around her back and pulled her in close. Dean put his hand under her chin and forced her to look up at him. He was taken aback by the emotion surging in her eyes. She looked so frightened, so vulnerable and there was something else. Something deep and passionate. Dean’s face reflected his puzzlement.

“I saw you. I’ve been seeing you….” Her voice broke a little, “I saw you and Sam and your Dad when you were hit by the truck. I saw you walking the halls of that hospital, talking with the Reaper when you were dying. I saw everything with the yellow eyed demon. I saw when you made that pact to trade your soul for Sam’s life. I saw …” the tears were cresting in her eyes now and her voice was trembling, “I saw when you were…”

“In hell?” Dean looked pained now. She had seen with her Sybil gift everything he had endured. Everything.

Grace’s eyes warmed and she smiled that sad smile. The same one that had been on her face last night when they were all talking with Castiel. “I saw Castiel. I saw him come for you. I saw him burn through the wastes of hell to get to you. I saw him take you, pull you from there. Dean…. I SAW him.”

Dean stood there completely stunned. He gripped her tighter in his arms partly to keep her there and partly to keep himself from swaying on his feet. His green eyes were intense and incredulous, “You didn’t go blind…?”

“I’m a Sibyl. It’s different. We’re built for seeing things like that when they are shown to us by our connected deity. Or in this case, when we see it…on our own.” Her hands were resting on his chest now and he could feel her trembling more. “Dean, I’ve seen it all. Your life. Not you know, twenty-four-seven. But the big bits. The giant emotional slams. I’ve seen….” She paused and steadied herself as if she was revealing something that was a deep part of her, “You.”

A though hit Dean like a train, “Are you afraid of me?!” Maybe the reason why she was acting so odd was that she was terrified of him. That was definitely the last thing he wanted.

“No… no…” she said so softly, “It’s not that at all….” She looked down and away, hiding her eyes from him. She started to pull away from him with gentle persistence. “You have to understand, I’m not the one. It’s not my place. I know that. I’ve seen that. You path isn’t my path. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t fall in lo…..”

“Dean!” Sam’s voice called up abruptly from outside below the tree house, “Gavin has the video feed from the park last night. Come down, you aren’t going to believe this!”


	5. Chapter 5

“It’s a Troll.” Dean said in a matter of fact way, as if Trolls were things every person saw every day of their normal lives. He was standing relaxed with his hands in his jean pockets with a very satisfied expression.

Gavin and Sam both turned to look at him with confused and strained looks on their faces. The three of them were standing in the main room of the house after Sam had called Dean and Grace inside. Now Gavin’s thumb hesitated over the remote control he had pointed at the large screen TV. Sam raised his hands a little with his palms up, a sort of surrendering gesture as he mouthed “what?!” as he looked at Dean.

Dean removed one hand from his pocket and gestured to the TV screen where Gavin had frozen an image from the video capture from the park. The image was of a large muscular shape covered in hair. It had a grotesque bulbous nose, a knobbed chin and heavy meaty brows sprouting more bristling hair. Its shoulders were massive and its arms nearly dragged the ground. And it was a worrisome height, nearly as tall as the trees themselves. In the image it was in mid bite, fitting half the goat into its maw with ease.

“The Scrolls of Bjergtrolde” Dean said a little smugly, “They are about Trolls. I think Gavin and Grace are right. One got out.”

“So now what? We just have to figure out how to put it back?!” Sam nearly laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

“Sure. We get the scrolls, get the spell, find the Troll, and BAM.” Dean grinned. But something in his grin caught a little, as if there was a cloud behind it. He hid that quickly with a sassy “We zip in, we pick ‘em up, we zip right out again ….. It’s like going into Wisconsin.”

Sam and Gavin just looked at Dean like he was speaking a completely different language.

“Well I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!” Grace chuckled as she came down the stairs into the main room. She had been upstairs getting dressed and had traded the kimono for a pair of black military pants and a black t-shirt. She was still barefoot.

Dean wheeled on his heel and turned to grin at her, “Thank you!”

Grace gave a secretive smile to Dean and looked to Gavin and Sam, “Bill Murry. Harold Ramis.” She joined them in front of the TV, “The movie Stripes. 1981?” then began gathering up all her hair to the back of her head. She slipped a hair clip from her pocket and secured her dark hair out of her face.

Dean let the knot in his stomach relax and let his smile deepen. He looked at Grace now and he could feel his gaze going softer and warmer. This was one of the few times he had felt like someone understood his goofy movie references. But then he remembered how she had said she had seen so much of his life, and he felt the back of his neck prickle a little. The thought of her seeing his life didn’t bother him so much as made him feel horrible for her. He had lived it, been in it… his life. It’s a different thing when you are an active part of something, rather than viewing it from the side lines. To just helplessly watching remotely, unable to assist or affect what she was witnessing? That left a cold feeling crawling down his spine.

“Okay, so… we reverse the scroll ritual.” Sam looked at Grace and she nodded in reply as if to confirm she felt it might be entirely plausible to do so.

“And what about HIM?” Gavin pointed to the TV screen where he had fast forwarded the video record to the tall lean figure dropping out of his hiding place in the trees. It was paused as his cloak was floating down around his form. The angle the camera caught of his eyes made them seem to glow.

All four of them stood silent looking at the figure, careful consideration in different degrees on their faces. Grace raised her fingers to her chin and was about to speak when Dean’s cell phone rang. Dean pulled it out, answered it, then looked at Grace and hung up.

“It’s Cas….” Dean looked a little puzzled, “He wants to talk to you Grace….”

“Okay.” She just nodded simply, turned and left the room heading to the front of the house.

Sam looked at Dean a long moment as if to say “Well….?”

Dean shot back with a slightly grouchy frown, “Just her. Cas said to continue doing whatever it is we are doing.” He shoved his hands into his jean pockets and stared back at the TV screen. “He’ll talk to us later.” The sarcasm in his voice wasn’t hidden.

Gavin was ignoring both of them and had stepped closer to the TV screen. He tapped the remote control lightly on his chin and then outlined with his finger something that went from above the mystery man’s shoulder down across his body to come out the side of his opposite thigh. “Our boy is packing. That’s a pretty beefy long bow.”

“Oh freakin’ great. Now we have Legolas on our hands.” Dean growled and shifted uneasily on his feet. He leaned back to look through the archway to the front of the house. When he found he couldn’t see out to the front yard from that angle, he wandered into the kitchen. Gavin and Sam didn’t notice as they were now moving over to the computer desk to try to pull more information out of the video.

Dean slid up to the window in the kitchen facing out to the front lawn and eased the curtain back with his hand. He could see Grace standing near Cas and pointing to a large grassy patch where her yard met her neighbor’s yard. They both walked over to the spot, Cas coming from the sidewalk to arrive from the neighbor’s lawn. Grace paused a moment, said something and gestured for him to sit with her. Cas just stood perfectly still a long moment, regarding her.

Then abruptly Cas closed the space between them, awkwardly gathering Grace up into a warm protective hug.

Dean let the curtain fall down and he turned away. He could hear Gavin and Sam discussing the video and the scrolls in the main room. They were evidently getting somewhere but Dean’s mind was focused on Grace and Cas.

He opened his hands and looked down at his palms. His hands. Hands that were rough and brutal. Hands that had slain demons and fought ghosts. Hands that had done horrible, horrible things in hell. He was barely sane from everything he had done. He started to try to imagine what it had been like for Grace, seeing everything. Seeing him. And what had she meant when she had said she wasn’t the one?

He swallowed hard and peeked out the window at Cas and Grace again. They were sitting now, side by side. Her head was resting against Castiel’s shoulder and his arm was around her. They were facing away from Dean and he couldn’t tell if they were talking or what they were doing. Besides sitting, and holding each other. Dean’s insides churned cold and then went hard as he looked at them. He turned away from the window and headed for the front door.

 

—————————————————————————————-

 

The sky was beautiful. Sparse tendrils of white clouds floated up stretching across the bowl of blue overhead. The air was starting to become heavier though as the sun began to peak. The neighborhood around them was quiet. One girl riding a bicycle zinged past but didn’t give Castiel or Grace a second look.

“….I don’t worry about him.”

“I know.”

“He can take care of himself.”

“A little too well sometimes.”

A car drove past the house, the driver’s arm resting on the open window edge as the radio song floated out into the air before it was gone down the road.

“I know you love him.”

“Yes.”

“It’s kind of impossible not to.”

“It’s okay though.”

“Doesn’t make it any easier….”

The sound of the front door opening on Grace’s house silenced both Grace and Castiel. He dropped his arm from where he had curled it against her side. She lifted her head and looked up into the sky. Cas turned to watch Dean approach them. At first Dean’s strides were purposeful, but as he got closer and caught Cas’s gaze, Dean slowed and hesitated. He stopped a few feet away from both of them.

Grace was smiling this wonderful happy care free smile. Cas looked at ease, and was smiling completely with his eyes alone. Grace patted Cas on the knee, and stood. She stooped a bit and kissed him on the cheek with such tenderness it made Cas’s eyes close for a moment. Then she walked over to Dean. She patted him playfully on his ass as she walked past him and then continued to go back into the house.

Cas just sat there.

Dean rubbed the back of his neck like an awkward teen as he came over to Castiel. Dean lowered himself to sit in the grass beside the angel. Cas was looking at his hands as his fingers sifted through the grass.

“I went around the city last night.” Cas said in his trade mark voice. “Found the killer.”

“Troll?” Dean asked.

“Troll.” Cas answered. “Also found something else.”

“Level 15 Elven Ranger?” Dean tried not to smirk.

Cas just turned and looked at him with his usual odd questioning gaze, “No. It was a man. But he carries the Troll scent on him. He tracked the Troll all night until the beast went into its lair.”

“Lair?! Cas why didn’t you come get us? We need to kill it.” Dean frowned.

“It’s just a beast Dean. An animal. It’s just trying to survive.” Cas looked perplexed. “Besides, I’d only spook it with my presence. If the scent of the blood of a Christian man can make it frenzy, imagine what it would do if it caught my scent. Could make it more dangerous towards people.” Castiel stood up and looked down at Dean. “About Grace…”

“What about her?” Dean stood up.

Cas looked away, up into the trees, “Your Father had been tracking Azazel, who wound up walking around inside Grace’s foster Mother at the time. Your Father and Roth drove the thing out but not before the house caught fire.” Castiel turned and looked at Dean, “You were the one who helped Grace escape the blaze. You were ten years old.” Cas paused. “You don’t remember?”

Dean shook his head no, his eyes wide at hearing all this.

“That’s where Grace connected with you. You started coming into her visions about a few years later.” Cas stepped closer to Dean so he could look directly into Dean’s eyes. “She asked me to find a way to sever the connection. I don’t know if it’s possible.” Cas held his look into Dean’s eyes for a long while. His expression seemed as if he was going to say something. Instead he broke their gaze and stepped away onto the sidewalk. “I have to go now. I’ve lingered in this area too long. I could accidentally lead Zachariah here.”

Castiel took one last long look at Dean and then he was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean came back into the house to find Grace standing in the kitchen filling a thermos with the remains of the morning coffee. She had pulled on a pair of combat boots and a black cotton zip front hoodie. When the thermos was full, she screwed the lid onto it and handed it to Dean without looking at him. After he took it, she poured the bare remnants of the coffee into the sink and rinsed out the pot.

“Gavin and Sam have left for the club. Gavin got a call from Echo Team when we were outside. They found where the….” She stopped a moment and finally turned to look at Dean with a mixture of confusion and disbelief, but there was a hint of a smile at the ridiculousness of what she was thinking. “Troll. Seriously… a troll?! A Troll.”

Dean just raised his eyebrows and gave her a look that said he was right there with her in how strange that sounded. He shifted his grip on the thermos, then set it down on the counter and took a step closer to her. Cas had given Dean some answers, but those only left him with more questions. Now he was spoiling to close the circle and pull some answers out of Grace. He was about to reach out and take hold of her arm when both of their cell phones went off at the same time. Annoyed, he shoved his free hand into his pocket to dig the device out. Once open he growled his hello into the receiver.

“Dean!” It was Sam, and his voice held that breathy playful excitement that Sam got when he had figured out the solution to some problem, “I think we figured out how we can get this thing neutralized, and you aren’t gonna believe this… OH, and wait til you see what’s in the back of the club! Their home base for their hunting operations is incredible! You gotta get here. Their toys are awesome!”

Dean said they’d be there soon, and looked to see where Grace went while still listening to Sam. She was talking to someone on her cell as she went around locking her house up. He caught her eye and half mouthed, half pantomimed “Why are you bothering to lock your place…?” and then gestured to imply all the protective wards all over the house.

She gave a quick goodbye on her cell and dropped it into her pocket. Then she just stopped and stood in the archway and looked at Dean without answering his query about the house. Instead she made a gesture for him to hustle up and come along.

“…..modified a couple of stake chucking crossbows with laser sites…” Sam’s excitement continued in Dean’s ear as Dean grabbed his jacket and followed Grace out the back door. ”….there’s an actual trebuchet in the back!….” She paused to lock it behind them and then they both walked to the garage. Sam continued, “But anyway, we think the troll is light sensitive, so Gav wants to test…”

“Gav?!” Dean interrupted. He and Grace were in the garage now, but Dean just stood in front of the Impala and didn’t move to get into the car.

“Whatever.” Sam groaned and then continued, “The team that found where the troll is hiding accidentally flashed some sunlight in on it with a mirror when they were trying to get a look at it. The thing recoiled from the sunlight. We think we can use the ultra-violet lamp prototypes their teams have been using against vampires to maybe keep it down until we can subdue it or kill it.”

Grace had opened the passenger side door, but when she saw Dean wasn’t budging, she closed it again. She took a deep breath and nodded with a small resigned smile. Slowly she walked to the front of the car where he was standing. Her body language spoke of surrender, and acquiescence.

“Good. You guys work on that. Grace and I will be there soon.” Dean didn’t wait for anything more from Sam and ended the call. His eyes were locked with Grace’s now and he didn’t hide the determination settling itself into his gut. He wanted to discuss everything he had learned about her this morning.

She gestured for him to sit on the hood of the car. Dean hesitated a moment and then did so, propping his feet up on the front bumper. She moved to stand in front of him, and then moved in close to slip standing between his legs. She started resting her hands on his knees, but then slowly smoothed them up along the tops of his thighs. Her fingers pressed sensually, feeling the muscles there. This gesture caught the breath in Dean’s throat and his eyes went from serious business to intrigued surprise. She leaned the top of her thigh against the nose of the Impala and tilted her head to look at Dean. Her eyes were smiling the same way Castiel’s had been out on the lawn, and Dean could feel the inside of his stomach grip up. He clenched his jaw and swallowed, but his hands just rested on the hood of the car.

“When you pulled me from the burning house… we cut ourselves on the back sliding glass door. It had shattered in the fight between your Dad and the demon. Somehow when you gripped my arm to pull me along, our blood mixed in our wounds. That’s how the connection was made. I didn’t know it at the time. I learned this many years later after a lot of research.” She kept her eyes lowered as she spoke, her gaze smoldering around his chest as her hands pressed a little more into his thighs. “The visions of you started when you were sixteen I think? That first werewolf kill with your Dad. It was the emotional burst coupled with the adrenaline. That’s what always sends them to me. Your emotion and adrenaline popping.”

Dean realized his pulse was racing now. The scent of her, that thunderstorm smell, filled his nose and his head. It was exciting and frightening all at once. He leaned toward her, his hands lifting off the hood to reach for her. His mind was split down the middle between processing what she was saying and what she was doing. He cupped her face gently into his palms and lifted her eyes to his. The dark brown of her eyes had an endless depth to them in the low light of the garage, but still they shone out with this complete purity.

She started to give him a lusty smile and said, “I never thought I’d actually see you again someday, and I was a pile of hilarious awkward nerves when I ‘saw’ you were coming here.”

“And what about hell?” His voice came out deep and with an edge to it that he didn’t, couldn’t, hide. It made the smile on her lips die.

“That was a rough year. I…” Grace’s brows pulled in towards each other, “…didn’t get a lot of sleep. But because of the way time is… compressed there….your forty years came through garbled. Jumbled. I felt more what your emotional state was instead of seeing specific events.” Her eyes flickered darkly, the light snuffing out of them, “Oh Dean, when you finally broke…” Tears spilled out of her eyes and drew silver trails down her cheeks. She closed her eyes tight. She tried to pull back, away and out of his hands but he held her. “I knew where you were headed half a second before you caved in. I could feel it! Being on the edge of that and feeling you go. That was the worst, because…. because I had no way to help you.” She pulled in a ragged breath and began to tremble deep down into the core of her body.

Dean began to pull her to him to kiss her, but she brought up her shivering fingers to cover his lips. Her eyes opened then, and the hollowness drained out of them.

“You started this. Now you have to hear the rest.” She lowered her hand and placed it back on his thigh.

“I felt it when Castiel carved a cold swath through hell for you.” Her eyes began to fill with such resonant warmth it halted his breathing a moment. “I felt the vibration of him long before he even got to you. It was like a hot white star cresting in the corner of my eye. When he reached you, when he touched you, I thought I was going to come apart from the intense perfection of it. I saw him rip you away from there, saw his hands sear on your flesh.” Her whole body relaxed. “When he saved you, he saved me too in a way.”

Dean could feel the tears growing in the corners of his eyes. This urgent sense of wanting to hold her, keep her close and to protect her overwhelmed him. Here was this other person who knew. She knew! Knew everything about him, knew what it had been like for him. Knew it all!

“Dean,” Grace said his name so gently, so reverently that he didn’t resist when she reached up to pull his hands away from her face. “Dean… he wasn’t there for me though. He didn’t even know about me until a few days ago. He was… and still is….there for YOU.” She searched into his eyes then, as if looking to see if he registered what she was getting at.  When he just frowned questioningly she took a deep breath and looked down at her hands. At his thighs. At the Impala.

When Grace finally did raise her head, her eyes had a calmer cast to them. “Do you understand how much I love you?”

That knocked the remaining breath out Dean. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open slightly. “Wait… wh…what?!”

“I love you. I love the way you sing in your car and the insane way your mind works. I love your snappy one liners and how you adore your car. I love that you give everything for your family and how selflessly you dive head first into helping people. I love everything about you. And I always will. And maybe in another life time we could have been something. But I’m not the one who is supposed to be part of your life this time. I’m not the One. I’ve known that since Castiel rescued you from hell.” She said it all plainly, sometimes smiling. Except that last part. When those words rolled from her lips she looked resigned. As if this was something she had figured out a long time ago and now it was just another part of her.

Dean balked, not knowing what to say, or do. He sat, silent, working everything she had said over in his mind.

Grace smiled gently then, and reached up to run the tips of her fingers over his cheek and along his jaw, “Man, you’re amazing.” She locked eyes with him then, “And I’m not the only one who sees that. I’m not the only one who loves you Dean Winchester.”

Grace began to pull away but he caught her around the waist with his hands. “Wait.” He slid off the hood of the Impala and pressed her close, making her face him. Dean embraced her as if to keep her from evaporating into the air. He looked down at her face, studying it. He saw the curve of her bottom lip and some unknown small spurred scar at her temple. He was trying to imprint her eyes and the round end of her nose and all of it into his memory. “This isn’t fair. It’s like you’re at the end of a book I just opened. There is so much about you I don’t know.”

She looked into his earthy green eyes and her eyes spoke of an absolution and of an understanding he would come to know someday. He knew then that he would just have to accept that this was all they would ever have of each other. That this single place where their stories crossed was it and there would be no more. Dean felt his heart go heavy with a sense of lost possibility and it made him ache with frustration at life.

Grace took that moment to reach up and bring his mouth down to hers. She parted her lips just a breath and gave him a kiss that tried to encompasse everything she wished she could really give him. She let her passion for him leak though, let the love she felt for him swell out and into the kiss. He scooped her into his arms drawing her into him, trying to keep the moment locked into his being so he would have at least this much of her.

And then she broke the kiss and pulled away from him. A soft sound hitched in her throat and she moved away to stand alongside the car. She didn’t look at him, and after a breath she opened the passenger door and got into the Impala.

 

 —————————————————————————————————

 

The drive over to the night club was void of conversation between the two of them. They would trade curious glances and once Dean opened his mouth to speak but then the words caught in his throat. However, about half way there Grace reached over and took Dean’s hand into her hand. She gave him a gentle reassuring squeeze, as if to impart to him that everything was as it should be. To let it go. That in the end, everything would work out fine.


	7. Chapter 7

When the Impala pulled into the parking lot, Grace directed Dean to bring the car around behind the nightclub. She pointed to an area alongside the other buildings it was connected to. There were about two dozen cars parked there already, along with a handful of motorcycles. Dean parked and then he and Grace got out. Dean wandered a moment through the other cars, as some of them were classics like his Baby, and in excellent condition. At one point he stopped, paused alongside a cream coloured 1965 Astin Martin. He raised his brows and gapped a little, looking over at Grace.

“Yup. Just like they drove in the Bond films.” She smiled.

Dean hesitantly ran an appreciating hand along the car’s flank. “This is …wow. Beautiful.”

“It’s only had one driver.” The voice came from behind Dean. It was Roth. He was standing there in a dark blue t-shirt and dark navy cargo pants, his hands resting easy in his pockets. He had come away from the building to meet them. “Happy to let you take her around the block later if you like.”

“Oh no I couldn’t….” Dean’s grin nearly overwhelmed his face as he looked over the car.

“Suit yourself.” Roth turned to Grace, and just held his eyes on her without any expression. “We have a situation. Our usual contacts at the L.A.P.D. said they may not be able to help us on this thing if we don’t lock it down by tonight. The Police Commissioner is already making noises about asking the Governor for support of some kind.”

Dean glanced up from the car to look at Roth and then at Grace,”I don’t understand…”

Grace frowned, “That means the National Guard or the FBI.” Then she turned to Dean. “A lot of the police around here know what we do. They just look the other way…and so far nothing we’ve worked on has gotten that out of hand so it’s never been an issue before.” She turned her attention back to Roth, “So we move now, today, no matter what.” Roth nodded and then turned towards the buildings and walked away. Grace looked back at Dean, her eyes a little worried. “Cripes, I do not want any Feds getting in our way.”

Dean moved over to stand next to her, “The cops know about this operation?”

“Well yea. Dean there are nine million people in L.A. County alone, and another six or seven million in Orange County. If we didn’t disclose to the police sometimes it would hurt our effectiveness. There is too much on the line out here not to. That many people crammed into one area… we attract predators like a crazy beacon that says ‘all you can eat buffet’.” Grace placed her hands into her pockets and met his gaze.

“So that’s why you are so open about all this, why you teach people that come to the club, why you have the fliers and all…”Dean titled his head a little, “You can’t be clandestine because being secretive gets more people killed here.”

Grace smiled big at Dean, “Oh smart boy wins the prize!” She instinctively leaned up on her toes to kiss him, then caught herself and stopped. A soft blush came over her cheeks and she turned stepping away.

The flicker of disappointment across Dean’s face was abruptly replaced by startled surprise when suddenly Castiel appeared and was standing directly between them. Dean’s nose was almost buried in Cas’ hair as Castiel was facing Grace.

“Hello Grace…” Castiel turned his head to look over his shoulder, “Dean.”

Dean held his hand over his chest and stumbled back a pace, “I swear Cas, one day you are gonna give me a freakin’ heart attack!”

“Cas.”Grace smiled soft and warm, and she came over and gave Castiel an enveloping sweet hug as if it was something she did every day. And Castiel wrapped his arms around her right back, resting his cheek against her head as they embraced. “How are you?” She asked. Castiel answered by moving his head to say something into her ear that Dean couldn’t hear.

“Hey….HEY.” Dean pulled them apart. “Do we have time for all this? No. And where have you been Cas?”

It was then that Sam jogged up to the three of them, “Are you guys going to screw around out here all day? The thing is on the move….” Sam grabbed Dean’s jacket at the shoulder, gave a small tug and then jogged back towards the buildings.

Dean took in a good look where his brother was heading. The buildings behind the nightclub were two huge docking warehouses with four massive loading doors on one of them, and six on the other. Right now most of them were open and it was a hive of movement within them. The smaller building with the four doors was set up into three sections. As Dean followed Sam, he could see one area devoted as a weapons cache, one area was some sort of central planning space with computers and large maps of the area, and the last one looked more like a science laboratory than a hunter’s den. As Dean wandered in through the massive doors he saw they could be rolled down and shut to lock tight. The central command area was the busiest, with people on headsets talking to other people on computers or listening to police band radios. There were about twenty people here, all in a buzz of activity.

“Echo Team confirms, target is moving south along the river…”

“Is it on the 710 side or the other?”

“Other side!”

“But I thought we confirmed it was adverse to sunlight?”

“Echo Team says they have significant cloud cover!”

Dean moved just outside the building to look up at the sky. A front was rolling in steadily off the ocean and bringing with it dark rain clouds that were blotting out the sun. Grace walked past him heading for the command center and Dean grabbed her arm, “What can I do?” Sam had vanished from sight.

Grace pointed to Roth over in the weapons section, “Why don’t you go gear up.” She then pointed to the other six open warehouse doors of the other building. Inside were various vehicles, even four older model SWAT vans. “And help Roth and the others load up.” She gave him a gentle squeeze on his arm and then headed into the chaos near the maps and computers.

Castiel was suddenly at Dean’s side, “The other angels still don’t know you are here….You and Sam are safe still. Is there something I can do to help here?”

“I don’t know yet… what do you know about Trolls?” Dean looked at his friend.

“They are beasts. Little more than animals. They usually don’t have much intelligence.” Castiel frowned, “I believe this one is very far out of its normal environment and could be more dangerous than they usually are.”

“And what about that guy… the one that stinks like the Troll?” Dean met Castiel’s blue gaze.

“I could go find out.”Cas said flatly.

“Just becareful….” Dean said but Castiel was gone in a fluttering whoosh before Dean finished. Dean shook his head and then made his way over to the weapons area.

Sam was there with Gavin and Roth, and they were examining what looked like over sized old fashioned square camera flash bulbs. They were each about six inches wide and about four inches tall. They had handle grips on them and wires leading to small portable battery packs. Sam handed one to Dean when he was close enough.

“We use these when handling vamp nests.” Gavin showed Dean the on-off toggle switches. “A typical flashlight will beam out about 10 to 20 lumens of light. These do a whopping 300 lumens for up to ten full seconds before draining their power source.” He placed a pair of goggles in Dean’s hand. “It’s a must to wear the goggles when firing these as you could go blind otherwise.”

Dean looked over the flash units and the goggles and then looked at Sam. Sam was fitting a set of goggles on his head, adjusting the straps carefully. Dean looked at Gavin and Roth, “This really effective on vamps?”

“Slows them down enough.” Roth nodded, “Not all our team are hand to hand combatants. So when clearing out a nest we can use these to corral the vamps into the areas where we have people skilled in decapitation.” Roth said this coolly.

“So…” Dean looked at Roth and met the man’s level stare, “How long have you been…skilled…in…you know….combat?”

Roth paused and then removed a blade weapon from its holster at his thigh. It was about twenty inches long with a single-edged blade that pitched forward towards the point, the edge being concave on the part of the sword nearest the hilt, but swelling to convexity towards the tip. “This is a Kopis.” He turned it over lightly with his fingers. It was incredibly old but well cared for. “It was given to me by Alexander the Great’s general, Perdikkas.” There was no flicker of anything in Roth’s eyes. It was as if he was talking about how had just picked up the mail, or any other mundane thing that happened every day. “I call it ‘Lex Talionis’.”

Sam swallowed hard, entranced by the weight of what Roth was saying, “It means law of retaliation.”

Roth looked at Sam and gave the barest hint of a smile, then offered the blade to Sam to hold. Sam took it gently, reverently, and then devoured it with his eyes. He held it and felt the balance of the blade and Sam’s eyes glittered like it was Christmas. Then he carefully handed it back to Roth. “Magnificent”

Roth gave a short military style bow and then gestured to a wall of bladed weapons mounted near him, “Perhaps we can spar later if there is time.”

Dean straightened his jacket and smiled, “Heck yea. I’m up for that! Probably learn more than a thing or two….Does Bobby know about you…?”

Before Roth could answer, a loud voice called out over the din of chaos in the building asking for their attention. Everyone quieted and turned to see Grace standing on one of the tables in the command area, “Echo Team says it has stopped and huddled itself near Santa Cruz Park near downtown Long Beach. They said it was following the bike path along the river and then turned in to huddle under the trees in the park. We in leave in five minutes.” Someone helped her down off the table and she was lost from view.

Roth gave a short nod, picked up one of the flash lamps, sheathed ‘Lex Talionis’ and walked off towards the command center area. Gavin loaded as many of the flash lamps as he could carry into his arms, and Sam did the same. Other people came from the command area, picked up lamps and goggles and followed Gavin out as he left. Sam not far behind.

Dean slipped the goggles in his hands around his head, grabbed three of the lamps and headed out towards the Impala. He was halfway there when a motorcycle pulled up alongside him.

It was a sleek black Yamaha FJ1200 that looked as if it had been modified a little in the suspension to tackle mild off road conditions. The cyclist had a machete strapped to their leg in a case that looks as if it would snap open for easy access. The cyclist held still, and pulled the helmet off their head. Grace’s brown hair tumbled out and she smiled at Dean. “Are you sure you want to take that sweet ride of yours into a battle zone?”

Dean stepped closer so he could feel the vibration of the motor cycles engine, “We’ll be fine.”

“Sam is riding with Gavin in one of the vans,” She looked over her shoulder to indicate one of the old SWAT vans pulling out of its garage space.”Where’s your other …other…. half?” Her eyes twinkled with mischief.

“Who? Cas?” Dean wrinkled up his nose, and he saw there were faint sigils painted on her bike, “He went to check out our mystery archer and see what that is about.”

Grace paused a moment and her brow furrowed a little in thought, “Would you meet up with Castiel and handle that situation?”She gave Dean an imploring look.

“You don’t want me near the Troll.” Dean gave her a scowl in return.

“That isn’t it at all. I honestly think maybe the archer is a bigger part of this than we thought. If you can find him and get him to where we are with the Troll….”She said, “I dunno. Maybe he can help. Maybe knows something we might not.”

Dean nodded then and his face softened. “Okay. For you.”

Grace nodded in return and then reached into her pocket and pulled out something. It was a high tech ear piece unit. “Here, you’ll be able to hear the chatter on everyone’s headsets. They’ll be able to hear you when you talk as well.” She placed it into Dean’s hand.

“Thanks…”He said and then they locked eyes for a moment. He drew down closer to her but she looked away quickly and put her helmet back on. She leaned forward and in a flash she was off, weaving expertly between the other vehicles. Dean shook his head slightly as he watched her go, admiring the view from behind as she did. He gave a small sigh and then jogged back to the Impala.


	8. Chapter 8

Driving the Impala, Dean followed the caravan of four SWAT vans full of the Los Angeles hunters. The sides of the vans had been tagged up and painted to look like they were part of some local skate board clothing company. Around them, six of the group was on various motorcycles. Dean could see Grace up towards the front for a while, and Roth on a motorcycle as well. The chatter over his ear piece was primarily status updates coming from Echo Team who were staked out in the park with ‘visual confirmation’ on the Troll. Dean chuckled at how the high tech gadgets of the twentieth century were being used to hunt down a fairy tale creature from centuries past.

The convoy made its way down through Long Beach and Dean heard over his ear piece how some of the motorcycles were breaking away and heading down quicker, slipping through traffic with practiced ease. He made noted that Grace used ‘Red Five’ as her call sign and it made him smile. Soon they were all pulling along Magnolia Avenue, and then turning on 3rd street. They parked in front of an elementary school and began to unload. Dean saw they had larger lamps with them in the vans; many double the size of the single hand held versions. Dean was about to get out of the Impala when his cell phone rang.

“Hello Dean…” It was Castiel, his usual pebbly voice coming over into Dean’s ear. Dean removed his other ear piece to listen to Castiel. “I found the archer….he is here with me now. This is… very interesting.” Castiel had continued. “He says he’s from Denmark in 1342.”

“Where are you Cas?” Dean looked out his window as the group of hunters left their vehicles to jog the rest of the way into the park. A light misting rain began to feather down from the gray sky above.

“We are in on a small pathway used by cyclists where it comes under a bridge.” Castiel reported.

“Stay there, I’m coming to you.” Dean closed his cell phone and got out of the car. He hiked along the street, sprinting a bit to catch up with the other hunters. When he was close enough to one of the group, he asked where the bike path was and once he had directions he headed at a quick jog that way.

Soon he found the angel crouched sitting along the bike path under the overpass. Sitting beside him in a similar fashion was the hooded and cloaked figure from the video feed. As Dean approached, they booth stood up. Gavin had been right; this archer was carrying a very impressive looking long bow, as well as a compliment of lethal looking arrows.

The archer said something to Castiel in a soft spoken foreign tongue as Dean stopped in front of them. Castiel nodded, said something else and gestured to Dean. The archer pulled his hood back, placed his closed fist over his heart and gave a small bow to Dean.

The man was nearly as tall as Sam, with a similar build as his brother. He had long white blond hair and very light green eyes. His complexion was somewhat pale and he looked as if he were in his late twenties or early thirties in age.

“He says his name is Galefridus Stig and he’s from….”

“Yea yea yea, what does he know about the Troll?” Dean eyed the leggy archer and then speared Castiel with an intense look.

Castiel met Dean’s gaze with annoyance, “A lot.”

Dean opened his mouth to counter Castiel’s comment when the chatter over his ear piece in his hand became loud enough they could all hear it. Then a half second later several gun shots barked out from the area of the park. Dean turned and ran in that direction along the bike path with the archer right behind him. As Dean ran headlong into the park, a loud bellowing roar erupted and it shook the trees. There were several sudden bright pops of light to their right, and then the ground shook with another angry roar. Booming heavy foot falls made the ground tremble again.

And then suddenly the Troll was right in front of Dean and the archer on the bike path.

It was massive in girth and pushing at least 15 feet in height. It’s hulking muscled shoulders, the top and sides of its head, its torso and its thighs were covered in shaggy long grayish brown fur. Leaves and twigs stuck out of the fur and in places blood and gore were matted and sticky in it. It had hard beady black eyes, a pulpy nose and a large slathering mouth that showed broken mean teeth. Its paws alone were five feet in span and it currently clutched a sizable tree branch. It took one look in Dean’s direction and it drew in three quick snorting sniffs of air.

“…son of a bitch…that thing grew bigger since last night….”From where Deans stood the Trolls scent was horrific. It was a mix of urine and offal and something else entirely worse.

Next to him, Dean heard a taught stretching sound and he looked to see the archer loading his bow and taking careful aim. Just before he let the arrow fly, there came another round of incredibly bright pops of light from Dean’s right. He could see where the light hit the Trolls skin it would crust over looking almost stone like. But the effect was short lived and the Troll seemed to heal the damage within seconds. The arrow left the archers bow with a soft whistling sound. It traveled so fast Dean couldn’t even track it with his eyes. One moment it was leaving the bow and the next moment it was buried in the Troll’s left eye.

The Troll howled in agony and plowed forward straight at Dean. Its huge paw like hand stretched out grabbing at Dean and just before it closed on him, the archer’s body collided with Dean and knocked him to the ground. The Troll stumbled around them, clawing at the arrow in its eye while taking in deep sniffs on the air. Dean rolled and ducked, crawling to scramble away from being trampled under the Trolls feet.

In an instant later, two motorcycles were zipping up and around the Troll. Dean saw a flash of metal and recognized Roth’s blade being unsheathed. The other cyclist he saw was Grace. She was holding a machete in her right hand, the dull edge of it pressed up alongside her forearm with the sharp edge facing out. She revved the cycle’s engine, and then spun the tire so she fishtailed a little. This caused the back tire to spin hot over the top of the Troll’s foot and it stepped back howling, away from Dean and the archer.

The Troll swung wide at both cyclists, and then turned sniffing again. Its one good eye locked onto Dean and it reached down for him. Dean ducked and dove as he heard another arrow sing through the air. That arrow landed to stick out of the Troll’s thigh. Again it reached for Dean, but Dean’s feet were under him now and he ran back towards the overpass out of the way. He stopped and turned to look behind him.

The Troll had twisted around to follow him, but as it did, Roth caught it across its other leg with his blade. The Troll bellowed and the Los Angeles hunter team began to surround it, bringing the lights into place. The archer let loose another arrow and it found purchase in the Troll’s back. Dean could see a group of hunters lining up behind it with a large mesh metal net and he could see that Sam was one of them. The Troll waivered and swayed on its feet as it began to make low guttural whining sounds.

Dean let out a small breath, and he saw Castiel standing beside him out of the corner of his eye.

“GOGGLES!” someone in the group of hunter’s yelled and Dean reached up to slide his up onto his face from around his neck. He just had them over his eyes when the Troll made a loud snarling sound. It crouched and swung, knocking the archer off his feet, and when the paw came back around it took out the hunters with the lights holding position between the Troll and Dean. The muscles in the Troll’s leg coiled and it leaped up, jumping into the air and landing with such force right in front of Dean and Castiel that it knocked them off their feet and onto the ground. Before either of them could move, the Troll slapped Castiel away and he went tumbling down the gravel embankment into the L.A. River. Then it scooped Dean up into its left paw and with its right paw it reached up to the overpass. It hauled itself and Dean up onto the overpass and then it took off running at a thundering pace past the 710 merging lanes and straight for the Gerald Desmond Bridge.


	9. Chapter 9

Dean nearly blacked out from the way he was being swung in the Troll’s grip as it ran. He tucked his head down and curled himself up as much as he could so anything sticking out of the Troll’s hand wouldn’t be smacked against something. Which wasn’t easy as the Troll was wailing and running, and shoving cars out of its way as it went. It whacked one vehicle with a panicked screaming man inside all the way over to land upside down.

The Troll thundered along up the side of the west bound lanes of the bridge. It kicked, shoved, slapped or pummeled any cars or trucks out of its way. Dean could hear a cacophony of car horns and crashing sounds piling into their wake. The Troll squeezed once and Dean found he was having trouble breathing.

The Troll reached the over arching support beams of the bridge and began to climb up into them like a kindergartener climbs playground monkey bars. Dean could see the east bound traffic crashing to a halt as people saw the Troll climbing the bridge spars. It shook Dean in its hand once knocking the rest of the air out of Dean’s lungs and sending the goggles on his head tumbling to the asphalt sixteen feet below him. It was then Dean discovered he could wriggle his hand down along his thigh and reach his own knife. Gasping he went for it.

The Troll let out a long bleating bellow as if to claim dominance of the bridge, and a moment later it let off another painful short howl as Dean sliced into the flesh of its palm with his knife. It shook him and then dropped him. Dean flew out of the Troll’s grasp, hit the side of smashed trailer and tumbled to the road.

A split second later, both Roth and Grace had flown up around the crashed cars and trucks on their cycles. Roth spun his motorcycle to a halt and brought up a carbine crossbow. He let the round loaded into it fly off at the Troll but missed. Grace wheeled around and came up to stop beside Dean. She got off her motorcycle and came to Dean’s side. As Roth reloaded she bent down to check just how battered up Dean was. He was dazed and limp, but breathing. He pulled himself up to sit and his body weaved slightly. Grace slung one of his arms over her shoulder and gripped him close, trying to help him to stand.

The Troll gave another loud angry howl and then there was another sound. Roth’s voice rose over everything, chanting.

Grace and Dean looked up to see Roth holding a large smooth stone with runes carved over its surface. He brandished it at the Troll and the Troll turned to regard him but just held there as if mesmerized. Then Roth turned and looked at Grace. At first she smiled, but then the cold light in his eyes made her stomach feel hollow.

“Centuries…for centuries I have served your bloodline.” Roth unseated himself from his motorcycle and walked over to Grace. He placed his hand under Dean’s chin and lifted Dean’s face to look at him, “And for centuries I was the one bonded to the Sibylline. When they were of age, we would blood bond. I was the one they came to for comfort. For love. I was their Knight. Their everything. I found them suitable mates and kept their line going. Until YOU.” He squeezed Dean’s jaw hard in his grasp then shoved Dean’s face away. Dean’s head lulled sagging.

Grace’s eyes went wide, “….but I bonded with Dean instead…..Accidentally….”

“Yes Grace. You were the last of the Cimmerian Sibylline. You were to be mine, my prize for long services done well. To live out our days together as one and then die together in the end as lovers should.” He brought one finger up to her face and stroked it lovingly across her cheek.

Grace recoiled. “A prize?! I’m not a freakin’ princess trapped in some castle that you win after destroying koopa troopas! I’m a person Roth. If you were so enamored of me why didn’t you just tell me?! Why didn’t you let me decide for myself?!” She let the sarcasm barb her words as she glared angrily at him.

“Ah but you did decide. You chose him.” Roth flicked a rough finger at Dean’s head. Dean responded by weakly raising his arm and giving Roth the finger.

“Roth! He was never mine to chose! If you had talked to me as a person instead of treating me like a THING you would have found that out!”Grace looked at Roth and her eyes shone with a hard light.

Roth made a sound of disgust and turned over the rune stone in his hand. The Troll remained docile, clinging to the bridge as if waiting for a command. “Grace, I am weary of this place. Tired of this…..world.”He gestured out to the view of Long Beach from the bridge. “I am ready to die. And my life won’t end until yours does. So we will go down together just as I had always dreamed we would.”

Grace’s voice caught thin as her breathing rasped a little in fear, “But you can’t lift a finger to harm me, because you’re my Lares.”

“Indeed.”Roth looked up at the Troll, “But I can unleash something that will do it for me. For us” In one fluid move he smashed the rune stone against the pavement at Grace’s feet. Instantly the Troll bristled with a snarl. It leapt down in front of Grace and Dean and Roth, its feet causing the bridge to rumble when it landed. The force of it knocked Grace down, and she collapsed to the asphalt with Dean in her arms. The Troll reared up its head, pulling its mouth wide to bare its jagged teeth. Then that mouth came chomping back down. Grace threw herself protectively over Dean and covered her head with her arm.

There was a loud squishing snap and a splatter of blood showering the road. The Troll opened its mouth again, bit down hard and choked down another full bite of bone, organs and flesh.

Trembling Grace lowered her arm and looked to see the Troll gorging itself on Roth’s body. Roth’s head and shoulders, and one of his arms were gone. The second bite took the rest of his torso. One of his legs tipped over and landed with a sickening thud in front of Grace. She began to scoot back away from the Troll, dragging Dean with her. After it swallowed down what was left of Roth, it looked greedily at Dean and her. Grace started to stumble to her feet, her small hands gripping Dean’s jacket tightly. She pulled them both back around a car that was turned on its side and kept going. The Troll shoved the car over, nearly pinning her and Dean against the cement side of the bridge. She hitched her arms under Dean’s and around to grip at his chest. She could feel Dean fighting to make his feet and legs work, to help get them out of there. The Troll lumbered around the rest of the car and in one stride was looming over the two, bloodied drool dripping down its jaw.

And then suddenly Castiel was there standing firm between the Troll and Dean and Grace. He raised one hand up and shouted “Cover your eyes!” Grace dropped Dean to the ground and twisted around to cover him with her body, ducking her head down against the pavement. Light erupted white and sharp into the air. It beaconed out from Castiel in a violent flash. The Troll was smashed with it as if it were a wave. It covered the Troll and in seconds its whole body was seized up turning to stone. It happened so swiftly that the Troll cracked and then shattered with a loud crash. Tiny bits of stone raining down over all of them.

Castiel turned to Dean and Grace as the rest of the motorcycles with the other hunters pulled up to the scene. Sam hopped off the back of one of them and came running over to Dean’s side. Castiel bent down, touched his fingers to Dean’s forehead and Dean let out a small gasp. Castiel stepped back, and Dean got up healthy and whole, pulling Grace to her feet. Her surprised blink back and forth between Dean and Castiel spoke volumes but it only lasted a moment. She grabbed Dean and hugged him tight, then did the same to both Sam and Castiel.

“Let’s get you out of here.”


	10. Chapter 10

Sam and Dean came out of Grace’s front door and walked across her lawn. Out on the green grassy patch where he had sat with Grace previously, Castiel was now seated speaking with the archer. Grace had asked them to go and wait for her at her home while she, Gavin and the other hunters stayed to deal with the aftermath of the Troll’s attack. They were immediately busy assisting emergency personnel in rescuing people trapped in the many crushed cars on the bridge, and Grace needed to deal with their law enforcement contacts in the police department. She wasn’t certain how long everything would take to sort out, so she had given the brothers a key to her house and sent them off telling them that Bobby would kill her if they wound up in jail.

Sam and Dean approached now with sandwiches in their hands, and bottles of beer. They sat beside Castiel and the archer, and offered some of the food and drink to them. Castiel didn’t take any, but the archer looked deeply grateful as he started to eat.

“So, this guy is from the past… same as the Troll?” Dean said around a mouth full of ham and cheese.

“He was originally part of a team of hunters who were chosen by his town to find the Troll and lead it to where they had a trap waiting.”Castiel’s intent gaze never left the archer’s face, studying him as if he was the most fascinating thing he’d seen all day. “They caught the Troll and trapped it in the scroll just as Gavin and Grace suspected. This man was trapped as well, accidentally. When the Troll was freed, so was he.”

“And since his job was to track the Troll he continued to do it.” Sam gave a small shake of his head in admiration.

“Does he know who let the Troll out?” Dean cocked an eyebrow at the archer and then took another bite from his sandwich.

Castiel turned to the archer and asked him something in his language using soft spoken tones. The archer replied, gesturing occasionally as he explained something in detail. Castiel nodded throughout and then spoke to Sam and Dean, “He remembers falling out of a hole in the sky and landing on the ground behind a large man who was conducting a ritual. He said the Troll was already free and at the man’s feet. The scroll was in the man’s hands, a ritual circle was around them and there were other items he didn’t recognize. From his description, the man was Roth. Galefridus Stig was able to sneak away without Roth seeing him.”

“That means Grace and Gavin didn’t free the Troll. And Roth must have taken the scroll out of the basement to do the ritual.” Sam said, “But if the basement is locked down, how did he get in without Grace knowing or helping him?”

A worried look crossed over his face, “Dunno. I do know she was as freaked out about all of this on that bridge as I was. If she helped him, I don’t think she did it willingly or knowingly.”

Galefridus Stig, the archer, had finished his sandwich and was drinking the beer with hearty and appreciative burps. He smiled jovially and raised his bottle many times to the two men and the angel, saying things in his native tongue. The brothers couldn’t help but reciprocate with their own beers as they smiled back.

“Yea, um… what’s Stig going on about Cas?” Dean chuckled.

Castiel translated, “He says he’s honored to have been in battle with such great warriors and he wishes you long life, successful hunts, full bellies, enjoyable drunkenness and as many orgasms as you can muster without passing out.”

Both brothers nearly spit their beer out in surprised laughter and Sam finally managed to ask Castiel to wish him the same back.

“And what does Stig think about you Cas?”Dean smiked.

Castiel looked from Galefridus Stig to Dean and then he looked up away into the sky, a pleased look on his face. “Galefridus Stig believes I am a Valkyrie.”

Dean let out a laugh, “Aren’t those supposed to be women?”

Castiel stood up, said something to Galefridus Stig in his language, and then glared at Dean. “I’ve been lingering here too long. I shall return.” Then he vanished.

Sam gave Dean a scornful look and the three men removed themselves from the lawn and went into the house. Sam continued frowning the whole way inside.

Dean just shrugged, “What?!”

 

 

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Grace leveled a look that said ‘I-don’t-believe-you-were-so-mean’ to Dean. He was sitting on the edge of her bed as she went through a box of clothing they had brought down from her attic. “Dean, do you know what a Valkyrie is?” She pulled out a large man’s gray sweat shirt and sweat pants.

“Sure, chicks with helmets and breastplates and wings who would lead dying warriors off to their afterlife.” Dean gave her a playful smile, “I’ve seen Bugs Bunny.”

Grace let out a groan and shoved the box against one wall. “You are half right. A Valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decide which soldiers die in battle and which live….” She folded the shirt and pants in her arms and stepped over to the door that lead out into the hallway. She paused to look back at him with her own playful smile, “Valkyries also appeared as the lovers and consorts of heroes.” She raised her eyebrows and looked pointedly at Dean. Then she walked out of the room and called back to him, “Think about that, Elmer Fudd.”

Dean got up and followed her out, ignoring Grace’s implications. “And what are we doing about Legolas?”

Grace made her way down her stairs into the main room. Galefridus Stig was sitting on the couch near the fire Sam had built in the fireplace. Grace smiled and came over to Stig and handed him the clothing. “Well, when Castiel comes back, we find out if Galefridus here can be sent back to his own time.”

Galefridus Stig stood and accepted the clothing with a deep bow. His eyes lingered on Grace’s face for a long time, and he smiled with rapt admiration. It made Grace blush sweetly and it made Dean scowl. She turned away after a moment and walked into the kitchen area, giving Galefridus Stig a glance back once as she went.

“And if Cas can’t take him back?”Dean marched into the kitchen after her.

She gave an unconcerned shrug, “We acclimate him to this time as best as we can I guess.” And she ended it with a small smile, “Maybe we can take him back to Denmark.” She glanced at Dean, “Maybe he’ll stay here with me. I can always use a good hunter on my team.”

Dean bristled visibly but Grace cut him off before he could speak, “And you and Sam need to be leaving. Cas said the other angels hadn’t tracked you here yet. Let’s keep it that way.” She leveled her dark eyes at him, “Dean…. You are gorgeous and wonderful and smart and fun and I would be a fool if I said I didn’t want you to stay. On the contrary, I’d give just about anything for you to stay….” She openly lavished her gaze over his body not hiding what she was implying at all and it made Dean’s gut quiver with warmth. “But your place isn’t here and you need to be with Ca….”

“Dude are you blushing?!” Sam had walked into the kitchen with Gavin and appraised the redness on Dean’s face. Sam gave his brother a playful shove and then went to the refrigerator for a beer.

Gavin nodded to Sam to grab him one as well. “I’m going to crank up the grill. We’ve got some burgers I can toss on and….”

Dean didn’t hear much of the conversation after that. Grace pointedly avoided his gaze as she went about helping Gavin get dinner together. Sam sat in the booth in the kitchen talking to them about the day’s events with the Troll and about his theories on how Roth got the scroll out of the basement without Grace’s assistance. Gavin confirmed that several of Sam’s theories could be checked into, and Grace concurred. Dean finally grabbed two beers and wandered out to sit beside Galefridus Stig and the fire. He handed Stig one of the beers and sat back.

Dean hated it sometimes when other people were right.


	11. Chapter 11

Castiel came the next morning after Dean made the phone call. They all waited for him out on the grass, but instead of appearing abruptly inside Dean’s personal space, he materialized right behind Grace instead. And when it happened, it was as if she anticipated him, because the second he was there, she was leaning back against him, her head falling back a little onto Castiel’s shoulder. Then she had slipped her hand down to hold his and she had closed her eyes as if relieved to have him there.

Castiel on the other hand glared at Dean as if he had done something terrible.

“So Cas…”Sam piped up, ignoring the unspoken drama simmering between his brother and the angel, “Can you take Stig back to his own time?”

Castiel tore his gaze from Dean and looked at Sam with calm eyes, “Yes. If he wants to return. It will take a lot out of me and I won’t be available to your call for a time.”

“How long?” Dean asked gruffly.

“I don’t know Dean, I haven’t traveled that great a span of distance in this vessel.” Castiel sounded annoyed at Dean and Grace opened her eyes. She dropped her hand from his and turned to look at him with a ‘don’t-be-like-that’ expression on her face. Castiel let out a sigh and nodded to her then replied to Dean, “I am unable to tell you.”

Grace moved away from Castiel and looked at Galefridus Stig. He was standing there in all his gear, his cloak around him, his bow and quiver across his back. Castiel spoke to Stig in his native tongue and then Stig replied.

“He would like to return.” Castiel said plainly.

Grace smiled warmly up at Galefridus Stig and reached up to place a kiss on his cheek, “Thank you for all your help.” Then she withdrew back to Castiel’s side. But as Castiel moved to step up and touch Stig, Grace caught his arm. “Could you all excuse Cas and I just a moment?” And she pulled him away to the corner on the sidewalk, tugging on the sleeve of his trench coat as they went. They stopped a far enough distance away that none of them could hear them talking.

Dean kicked at the grass with his boot as Sam and Gavin began talking between them about the security system in the basement. Dean looked over to see Grace place her hands gently on Castiel’s cheeks. She was speaking very intently to the angel, their eyes locked. Cas was replying and making her smile. Then she reached up and placed a tender kiss on Castiel’s lips that lingered a little longer than Dean liked. They embraced warmly and returned back to the grass with everyone else.

Castiel was almost smiling and he looked to Sam, then Dean. “I will contact you as soon as I am able.” He gave a small nod to Gavin and then looked at Grace. The smile that had been hinting on his face warmed to life and they traded some unspoken goodbye. Castiel then turned his attention to Galefridus Stig, spoke a few words to him, touched him and they were both gone.

 

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The Impala was packed up. Sam and Gavin traded brotherly hugs as they said good bye. They had run a diagnostic on the security system and had discovered how Roth had over ridden the protocols to break in. Then they had worked as a team to reprogram everything to keep it from happening again.

Sam gave Grace a huge hug, picking her up off her feet and nearly crushing her in his arms as they laughed. She thanked him for all his help and gave him Roth’s kopis, the Lex Talionis. Sam took it with surprised gratitude and hugged her a second time. Sam said good bye and got into the car.

Then Grace walked over to Dean who was lingering at the nose of the Impala after saying farewell to Gavin. She stopped and ran her fingers over the hood, then looked up to Dean. “You and Sam are welcome here whenever you like you know.”

“I know.” Dean’s voice came out small and quiet.

“I’d say I’ll miss you but….” She smiled and tapped a finger to her head.

“I know.” His voice broke a little. “I’ll miss you though.”

“Lies…” Grace chuckled, knowing he would be so busy with what the future held that he wouldn’t think twice about her. He wouldn’t have time to. She caught his eyes with hers, and very seriously said, “Stop being afraid Dean and really listen to your heart. Someday you need to reach out for what YOU want….”

Dean tore his eyes away and just grabbed her and hugged her fiercely. He held her for a long moment with his face buried into her hair. Then just as swiftly as he had grabbed her, he let go and walked away. He got into the Impala without looking at her and started the engine. He backed out of the garage into the alley, and Sam waved at Grace and Gavin before they sped off.

Gavin came to stand behind Grace and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, hugging her. “I’ll call Bobby and let him know everything went okay.” He gave her a squeeze, “You gonna be okay Gracie?”

She nodded, “Yea.” Grace took in a long deep breath and let it out again, and this time she sounded more confident, “Yea. We’ll all be okay.” She turned around to face him, her eyes shining dark with determination.

“Let’s see what we can do to on our end to help with this Apocalypse business….you remember that tablet from Heliopolis? Didn’t it talk about arch-angels and final battles and such?” She turned and started walking back to the house.

“Yea yea… and don’t forget the writings found in Liang Zhou! I think we might find something useful there….maybe there is a badass binding spell…..” Gavin went with her. Their voices faded into the air as they walked into the house.

 

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**Miles away a black 1967 Chevy Impala sped off down the road, the two brothers within holding the fate of the world in their hands.**

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Supernatural and its original characters and themes are the property of The CW Network. “Immigrant Song” and its lyrics are the property of Led Zeppelin. “Sanctuary” nightclub and its original characters are the property of E.G. Johnson 2012.


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